Castaways
by SplendentGoddess
Summary: In a world where only reiki users know youkai still exist, what were the odds that he'd get seated next to a miko? What were the odds that their plane would go down? What were the odds that only they would survive? Screw the odds. Better yet, screw her.
1. Into the Ocean

Blanket Disclaimer:

Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.

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><p>Winner! Voted 3rd place Best AU <em><strong>and <strong>_3rd place Best Inu/Kag Romance, Feudal Association 2nd quarter 2011. Thank you very much!

At first this story was only on MM and AFF because the lemon sequence in chapter four is a little too...rated MA for this website. But after being requested over on MM to post this story here as well I decided what the hell, it wouldn't be the first time I turned an X rated fic into an R rated one to abide by FF's guidelines. This story is simply too good, in my own and other people's opinions, to not share it with all of you over something so trivial. I edited and rephrased only the bare minimum I figured I could get away with, so rest assured this story is, for the most part, exactly the same as its slightly dirtier counterpart on the other two sites. The language may be less graphic and descriptive, but I haven't deleted any scenes.

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Chapter 1 – Into the Ocean

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Inching his way down the narrow aisle while doing his best to avoid bumping into people still sorting out their overhead compartments, Inuyasha grumbled irritably to himself as a crying baby and ringing cell phone both contributed to his oncoming headache.

_Great, as if being suspended thirty thousand feet over the ocean isn't bad enough_…

He _hated _flying. He hated it with a passion. He hated it more than curry, the new moon and Sesshoumaru combined. He would rather eat curry _with _Sesshoumaru _during _the new moon than subject himself to such torture. But, unlike his pompous ass of a half-brother who could merrily turn himself into a ball of light and dart across the pacific as nothing more than a UFO sighting, he was stuck in his corporeal, non-changing, half-human body, and forced to endure, as his brother had so eloquently put it, the 'abhorrent nuances' of humanity.

Still, considering the only other options would be to kindly ask Sesshoumaru for a lift – _so _not happening – or take a bloody _boat_, Inuyasha opted for flying as the lesser of three evils. It was either that, or stay in Tokyo and let his brother have all the fun when it came to dealing with the Los Angeles office. That so wasn't happening, either; expanding to the United States had been his idea, and he'd be damned if he let Sesshoumaru imply that he wasn't man enough to oversee his own personal branch of the family business. Under normal circumstances it wouldn't have been quite so bad, since he could have just taken their private jet, a craft his brother kept on hand for the rare occasions that they needed to shuttle one of their human business partners somewhere, but of course luck would have it that one such _rare _occasion had sprung up at the very last minute, forcing him to pay top dollar for a last minute _public _flight in order to not postpone his own business arrangements in Los Angeles.

_Unfortunate circumstances, my ass_… he mentally cursed as he recalled his brother's words when he'd told him use of the private plane would not be possible. _He did that on purpose to get back at me for crashing his favorite limo_.

Making his way to his designated aisle seat, he mentally groaned when a sudden tingling of reiki against the back of his mind had him glancing up to catch sight of who, or perhaps he should say _what _was occupying the neighboring window seat.

_Just fucking perfect_…

It was the 21st century, for crying out loud; surely the gods had gotten over their disdain for hanyou by now? But apparently not…for staring up at him from her seat with a look of surprise that quickly morphed into a disapproving frown as her eyes roamed higher to catch sight of his invisible ears, was a fucking miko. Oh, she wasn't dressed like a miko, not at all, but just because he was born to a noble youkai line, it didn't mean he was going to go parading around in a silk kimono, and just because this slip of a human woman still gawking at him had been born with spiritual powers, it didn't mean she had to wear miko garb everywhere she went, but she was a miko nonetheless.

Cursing under his breath as a passing flight attended told him to take his seat as the audio system dinged before the captain's voice announced they would be taking off shortly, Inuyasha slumped down into his seat, decidedly not looking at the woman next to him who was thankfully now staring at her lap.

The first few minutes of the flight were pleasant enough, he supposed, if you could call brain-shattering pressure in his skull pleasant. That stupid baby from three rows up wouldn't stop crying, but he just didn't have the heart to yell at the mother to shut her kid up when he honestly felt like joining the boy. Glaring hatefully at the useless headphones attached to the back of the seat in front of him, he brushed his faux raven locks forward, suddenly feeling self-conscious about the quality of his concealment charm. The woman sitting next to him could _obviously _see through it, but as far as he knew she was the only one on board with spiritual powers.

He could still feel her eyes upon him, the girl occasionally glancing his way for mere seconds at a time before she'd sigh and turn her head to look out the window at her right. If she was that uncomfortable just sitting next to him, there was no way she'd be able to muscle up the courage or courtesy to politely shimmy her way past at any point, supposing she needed to use the toilet or something. He was sure it was just bugging the hell out of her, being basically trapped in her seat for the next fourteen hours. Good.

"I'm sorry…I didn't mean to stare." she murmured quietly about twenty minutes in, the sound of her voice catching him off guard. It was the first time either one of them had spoken.

"Whatever."

Kagome cringed a bit at his tone, not that she could blame him. She wasn't stupid, and she knew how horribly rude it had been of her to stare at him as if he had silver hair and dog ears, but the truth was he _did _have silver hair and dog ears, or at least he did to her, and it had honestly just caught her by surprise. What on Earth was a youkai doing on a plane?

It was weird, seeing through concealment charms. It always had been. She could see the image the magic of his spell was projecting, that of a normal Japanese male, but she could also see the real him underneath it, almost like looking at a double-exposed photograph. She had to concentrate in order to block out the magic spell completely and see only the real him without the glamour, so that had been the initial reason for her extended gaze, as she'd focused on breaking through the concealment, because continuing to see both images at once would have given her a headache. Then as she'd mentally puzzled over the oddity that it was to see a youkai riding on an airplane – couldn't most youkai fly? – her eyes had drifted higher as she'd contemplated the presence of his triangular canine ears. Something in his aura didn't quite feel…Ah-hah! So, he was a hanyou. That explained his need for human transportation. Then she'd unknowingly frowned as she'd suddenly thought about how horrible it must be for somebody with such sensitive ears to have to endure the extreme pressure changes one experienced during flight. It was only after he'd slumped down beside her, clearly giving her the cold shoulder, that she'd mentally grimaced in realization of how her outward reaction to his arrival must have made him feel.

Choosing her words very carefully, because she knew she couldn't risk tipping off any of the benighted passengers as to just what sorts of creatures still roamed the world they lived in, Kagome whispered, "I was merely surprised to see you on this plane."

Eavesdroppers would probably presume she knew him.

"Don't I have a right to travel?" he grumbled back. Leaning closer to her ear he whispered hatefully, "Or are my kind beneath human rights?"

Glancing around nervously for fear of his words being overheard, Kagome hissed back, "It doesn't bother me that you're _burakumin_," choosing the human term on purpose since some fleeting prejudice still existed for those descendent of eta, though it was rare.

He merely snorted.

"Look," Kagome began then, the sternness of her tone surprising him as he glanced her way with slightly widened eyes. "Honestly, I was just surprised. You have to admit there aren't many others…like you…who would make use of a plane. And as for the staring, well…I was actually kind of feeling sorry for you, what with the cabin pressure and all. I figured it probably gives you a headache."

She turned away from him then, gazing back out the window without even bothering to wait for a reply. Inuyasha didn't know what to make of her, but one thing he did know was that he could smell dishonesty, and she wasn't being dishonest. That meant her reaction really had only been because of surprise. Another thing he knew was that his head was killing him, so she'd definitely nailed _that _one, and also…now that he thought about it, in all of the times he'd traveled back and forth to the United States over the last few decades, he had never _once _seen another youkai or hanyou getting on or coming off of an airplane. Every once in a while there might be one at the airport either seeing somebody off or awaiting someone's arrival, but that was different. She was right…he begrudgingly admitted to himself after a moment. Were he a human who had grown up knowing of the secret world of youkai all around them, he would probably have been just as surprised as she was to see one on a plane.

He remained silent for another twenty minutes or so, trying to figure out what to make of the girl beside him. She was young, early to mid twenties, tops, and she was wearing a cute little dark blue skirt and white blouse. He might actually think she was pretty if she hadn't totally screwed herself over in the 'first impressions' department. Then again, he thought with a sigh, he wasn't exactly winning any Mr. Charming contests, himself.

"You were right about the headache." he grumbled quietly, earning a hesitant glance from the girl.

"I have some Aspirin, if it'll help."

"Couldn't hurt."

Nodding, Kagome reached down for the purse sitting on the floor between her feet, pulling it up into her lap and digging through it a moment for the item in question. Handing him the small bottle of pills, she let him take however many he wanted. He swallowed the pills without water, handing her back her bottle with a mumbled, "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

The silence stretched on between them, and feeling awkward and unsure of where to look, Kagome quickly turned her head to gaze back out the window, a quiet sigh leaving her lips. She would have liked to engage the guy in causal conversation, but she could still feel the 'back off' vibe his aura was giving off. He probably didn't feel comfortable being so close to a spiritualist, and she knew she couldn't so easily redeem herself for the way she'd gaped at him like an idiot when he'd first taken his seat. That certainly hadn't helped matters any. The truth was, she actually thought he was kind of cute…check that, he was drop dead gorgeous. But he probably thought she was disgusted by his appearance, by the knowledge that he was mixed, especially since she knew that most people with spiritual powers didn't really approve of youkai and humans mixing although they had no right to prevent it. She sighed again…she'd never had a problem with youkai or hanyou, but good luck getting him to believe that.

Hearing her sigh, Inuyasha mentally sighed as well. It hadn't been his intention to create an enemy for the next thirteen-plus hours. He was usually a pretty friendly guy, the chick at his right had just rubbed him the wrong way, though he did relent that it hadn't really been her fault. If he were going to enforce the unwritten code that you only had one chance to make a first impression, then that meant he was pretty much screwed, too, since he'd been pretty dicky to her so far. Maybe he would grant them both a do-over, then, just this once.

"Inuyasha." he stated after a moment, his murmur so quiet that with most people wearing their earphones by that point, only she heard him.

Blinking, Kagome turned his way with an inquisitive look in her eyes.

"My name." he clarified, quickly adding, "My _real _name." since he was sure she knew how most older youkai would obviously go through multiple aliases over the years, not that any youkai parents of that day and age would be stupid enough to name their child something that labeled them as non-human. If he were as young as he appeared, also around mid twenties, then his given name would be something generic and unassuming, so being named 'dog forest spirit' not only told her _what _he was, but it gave her a ballpark figure of how _old _he was. He was from the era of proud youkai names, _before _their kind went into hiding, and sharing with her his true name, that was his peace offering.

She offered him a bright smile and replied with, "Kagome."

Nodding once, he turned his eyes forward, then, and she got the distinct impression that while her social faux pas might have been forgiven, they were certainly not on their way to becoming seat buddies for the remainder of the flight. Sighing to herself once more, she turned to again stare absentmindedly out the window. She couldn't see anything except the reflection of the stars dancing on the Pacific, the waning crescent moon having already set. It was going to be a long night.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Glancing at the sleeping woman to his right, Inuyasha smirked to himself. Kagome had sat quietly staring out the window for the last two hours or so, never saying a word after telling him her name. He would've been willing to engage in mild conversation with the girl, but he'd decidedly planned on leaving that up to her, and honestly, the quiet had been appreciated. But gradually the boredom had apparently gotten to her because she'd started nodding off not all that long ago, and the Sandman had finally won as now she sat with her head tilted sideways, her slow, even breaths somehow soothing the pounding he still felt in his head to a dull and manageable ache.

Or maybe that was her Aspirin.

Either way he owed her one.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to scrutinize the miko more closely – fair was fair, after all – Inuyasha couldn't miss the way her pretty little face still looked so cute even in sleep. He had seen a _lot _of sleeping humans in his day, and most of the time, especially sleeping propped semi-upright, _most _humans did not still look all that attractive in their sleep, assuming they had been even relatively attractive to begin with. But Kagome's mouth wasn't hanging open at an awkward angle; she wasn't drooling, she wasn't snoring, and despite the consistent hum of her aura which just _screamed _of spiritual powers at such close proximity, she really didn't seem all that threatening, either. He had also seen plenty of sleeping beasts in his day, and observing the way her chest rose and fell slowly with each gentle breath, he didn't get the feeling that he needed to proverbially tiptoe around her for fear of waking the monster. Miko did not just go around killing youkai in that day and age, after all, though they _were _trained to be wary of them. Miko and houshi, they were the secret champions, the unsung heroes. They were the ones who put their lives on the line to save the world without the world ever finding out about it. Should a youkai turn evil, go mad or just plain ol' decide to rise in power in order to take over the world, it was the job of the world's secret spiritual police to stop them. She was, theoretically and potentially, his enemy, but only if he were the one to start any trouble, first. It was a _human's _world they lived in, in that day and age, and he knew that. Miko and houshi were not the bad guys, though that wasn't to say he personally thought of his own kind as the 'bad guys' of the equation. It was a bum rap, in his opinion, how spiritualist humans grew up learning to be cautious and observational whenever dealing with a youkai, as if his kind were the beasts that couldn't be trusted.

While he admittedly didn't know her history, she had obviously been taught about youkai at some point in time or another. Even if she hadn't been born to a shrine family, spiritualists were always scouring the cities for potential applicants. One, they could use all the help they could get, but two, they also couldn't run the risk of some random person not connected to that world being born with powers they didn't understand, and either thinking they were crazy or accidentally 'outing' a member of peaceful youkai society. As a precaution, every hospital, birthing center and family clinic had at least one spiritualist stationed as an employee at all times, to catch new miko and houshi while they were young. Well…all but the youkai hospitals, of course, which were disguised in plain sight as privately owned, member-only facilities. The youkai knew the spiritualists knew they were there, but so long as both sides agreed to keep the peace there wouldn't be any trouble. Mild prejudices still existed between their people, but nobody was stupid enough to say or do anything that would trigger an all out war, and even Inuyasha could admit that if some random power-hungry youkai ever did decide to cause trouble, it would be in _everyone's _best interest for that individual to be taken out as quickly and quietly as possible. He didn't appreciate how members of the spiritual underground always gave him uneasy looks, as if trying to determine if he were potentially one such threat, but he tried to take it as a backhanded compliment of sorts, because he knew his youki was stronger than even most full-blooded youkai, and it obviously made them uncomfortable to feel how strong he was. One thing he could appreciate, though, was that in one twisted sort of way, youkai and spiritualists were actually a lot alike. While they were natural born enemies, total and complete opposing forces, they were also sort of like two halves of one whole, like yin and yang. They were both beings of magic that had to live secret double-lives, both keeping what they truly were a secret from human society at large for the greater good. That made him and Kagome alike, in a way.

Inuyasha was pulled from his musings when the plane suddenly jerked in the air, just some mild turbulence, though it was enough to get his attention as Kagome bolted awake beside him.

"Morning, sleeping beauty." he teased, flashing a fang that only she could see as he smirked at her embarrassment for having fallen asleep. Might as well have a little fun with the girl.

Grumbling something inaudible under her breath, Inuyasha chuckled, suddenly deciding that the next eleven hours might not be so boring, after all.

"Pleasant dreams?"

"Wouldn't you like to know."

Surprised but also delighted by her fire, he decided to see how far he could push her.

Leaning over, he rumbled huskily in her left ear, "It's okay, you can admit it, you were dreaming about me, weren't you?"

Caught off guard by his rather uncouth sense of humor, Kagome gaped at Inuyasha with disbelieving eyes. Was this his natural personality, now that he was no longer giving her the silent treatment for staring at him? Or was he just trying to make her feel uncomfortable to get back at her for her earlier rudeness? Probably the latter.

Deciding to play along, then, she pursed her lips and cooed, "That's for me to know."

"Oh _ho_…miko plays with fire."

Since miko were an acknowledged part of human shrine culture and your average citizen merely had no idea they actually possessed the spiritual powers from the legends, it was okay to use the word without rousing any suspicions. Still, Kagome didn't like the way he'd said it, like it was her _species _rather than her title. To him, she knew that was how he saw it.

"I'm not really a miko." she stated then, wishing to separate herself from those who followed the life of the cloth.

"Certainly not dressed like that you aren't."

Kagome bristled at the dig, self-consciously glancing down at herself. Her skirt was short but it wasn't _that _short. It was longer than the skirts she'd worn in school. Her blouse was average, dipping down to a moderate V in the front but not revealing an indecent amount of cleavage.

"And what do you call your clothing?" she shot back, gesturing to his old faded blue jeans and red Naruto T-shirt.

"Comfortable."

"Uh-huh, the plane ticket probably tapped your bank account, so you couldn't afford any nicer clothes."

_Why that little_…

So she thought he was poor? Diligently ignoring the echoed memory of Sesshoumaru's voice telling him he looked like a vagrant as he'd left the manor that morning, he shot back with, "I have a Black American Express card that disagrees with you."

Without even batting an eye at what he'd implied of his true financial situation, Kagome merely shook her head and stated firmly, "If you can judge me based on my clothing then I can do the same."

Was she trying to make a point?

_Heh…bet I hit a nerve, _he thought with a smirk. _Been called a whore before, has she? _

"But we both know you judge me based on much more than my clothing." he stated almost matter-of-factly, his features stoic as if he didn't care and was merely stating the facts.

Instead of rising to the bait and shooting back something about how he deserved it, or how he was proving the validity of her beliefs by acting like the animal she presumed him to be, her eyes unexpectedly softened at those words, and the weird, almost understanding smile that slowly wound its way up her lips suddenly had him feeling very uneasy.

"Is that what this is about? I said I was sorry, though I suppose I can't blame you for not really accepting my apologies."

"What…?"

His mask gone, his expression was clearly confused; she'd really caught him off guard with that one. The next words out of her mouth made it even worse.

"I know I have no idea what kind of a life you've lived, though I'm sure you've had it rougher than I can probably imagine. I can't blame you for being defensive when dealing with…someone like me."

Ah crap…now _she _was the one throwing out _her _species into the mix, reversing the situation as if he only disliked her because she was a miko. Was it true? Surely he'd only reacted to her the way he had because she'd started it, staring at him so openly…although granted, she'd since apologized, explaining herself and insisting that her reaction had only been due to surprise, and of all things actually _sympathy _for what it must be like for him on an airplane. But with the general animosity he was sure most miko probably felt for his kind…

_Damn it all_…

Inuyasha mentally kicked himself even as that thought finished making itself heard, refusing to continue that line of thinking since he knew that ultimately, to automatically disdain her for being a miko was no different from the youkai he dealt with who hated him for being hanyou, and it would make him no better than they were. She had been telling the truth when she'd said it didn't bother her, what he was, and that she had only stared because she had been surprised by his presence. His nose would have told him otherwise if she'd come up with that on the spot as a lie to cover her true feelings. It would only be a self-fulfilling prophesy, then, if he convinced himself that she hated him for being half youkai to the point of acting cruelly towards her because of said hate, in turn causing her to dislike him merely for how he was acting. The 'I hate their kind because their kind hates my kind' merry-go-round was a dizzying ride, and one he decided in that moment that he didn't want to be on any longer.

Sagging his shoulders slightly, Inuyasha shot Kagome a weak smile, before mumbling hesitantly, "Truce?"

Her grin widened then, and nodding, she agreed, reaching over with her right hand so they could shake in the Western tradition. "Truce."

The next few hours of their flight were spent pleasantly enough, chatting mildly about nothing in particular. Since neither of them could have the type of conversation they'd really need in order to _truly _get to know one another, they settled on merely telling each other of their present day to day lives. Going first, Inuyasha explained why he was flying, considering how he clearly detested the act, telling her how he and his elder brother had taken over the family business after their father's passing and that he himself had fairly recently expanded said business to Los Angeles, and that every so often it was necessary for him to make a personal appearance to make sure things were running smoothly. He really was made of money, though he didn't much care for showing it off like his brother did, and he really had worn his favorite jeans and t-shirt for comfort. Being stuck on a plane for fourteen hours was bad enough without having to sit through such torture in a suit. Especially the shoes; he hated shoes. Gesturing to his sandal-clad feet, Kagome nodded her understanding. His toenails, while they weren't pointy like the talons on his fingers, they were clearly made out of the same hard white material, and they were longer than where one would normally clip their toenails. She imagined that he couldn't reasonably keep them trimmed any shorter, because they probably grew back to their natural length at an accelerated rate, which meant that wearing closed-toe shoes would indeed be bothersome.

When she asked why he chose to fly on a public airline, because surely he could have afforded to charter a private jet, his answer was that normally he _did _take their private jet, he and his brother actually owned one, but that at the very last minute the jet had suddenly no longer been available; a dirty tactic of his brother, he was sure. He had then tried to find a private jet for hire, but it was too last minute, so finally, booking the public flight had been his only option.

"Maybe one of your brother's associates really had called at the last minute needing a flight." she offered, as if she were his brother's mediator or something.

Snorting, he disagreed. "You don't know Sesshoumaru." he stated with conviction.

Nodding, she consented that that was true. Maybe his brother really _was _an ass. He certainly sounded like he fit the bill if he was really going to blame Inuyasha for his favorite limo getting totaled just because that happened to be the one Inuyasha had taken out. It had been his favorite, too. Kagome believed him that he hadn't really had anything to do with the traffic accident; it wasn't as if he'd been the one _driving _the limo. Of course, Sesshoumaru didn't see it that way, because if Inuyasha hadn't wanted to go out that night at all, then none of their limos would've been totaled. But Kagome didn't believe in coincidence and Murphy's Law; everything happened for a reason. Sometimes the fates merely showed you the path they wanted you to take and it was up to you to actually make the first step, but other times, it was almost as if the gods themselves were directing your life, placing you exactly where you needed to be.

Thinking about the demonic man that had been seated beside her, she smiled at that thought, knowing they had to have been brought together for a reason, although what that reason was was evading her at the moment. He was awfully attractive, though; those ears were just too damn cute, and now that she was getting to know the guy, he didn't really seem like that much of a jerk. Maybe she'd muscle up the courage to ask him out on a date after their flight landed.

Once it was the miko's turn to tell her story, she told Inuyasha that she was actually going home, that while she had been born in Japan, she had moved to LA five years ago, and she had just been back in Tokyo visiting with her family for her little brother's eighteenth birthday.

"I did grow up on a shrine." she admitted softly, added cryptically, "But that just wasn't the life for me."

He raised an eyebrow at that.

"So you ran away?"

"Sought other opportunities."

"Do they know where you live?"

"My family?"

He shook his head. "Your superiors."

She looked confused at first, but his knowing look quickly had her understanding what he was hinting at.

"I don't work for them…" she insisted, though at his persistent stare she reluctantly added, "But, yeah…they know where I am. I have to stay registered. There are people like the both of us in America, too."

"_That's _for sure."

America really was the proverbial mixing pot. Japan wasn't the only country with beings like youkai, and for as many humans from the different regions that had migrated to the land of opportunity over the years, so had the various beings those different races of humans all considered to be myth. Japan also wasn't the only country with humans born that possessed naturally occurring magics opposite and combative to those of their mythological creatures, and as a result, there was a UN of sorts in that day and age for the spiritualists of various countries. There was a global alliance between most different races of youkai, too, but it was all just a lot of political mumbo jumbo as far as he was concerned. Honestly, Inuyasha didn't want to have anything to do with that nonsense, and apparently, neither did Kagome. The thought made him smile just a little.

A smile that quickly disappeared from his face at the sudden look of horror on Kagome's.

"What is it?" he asked in a low, rushed whisper.

Turning her head slowly to meet his eyes with a look in her own that bespoke of absolute terror, Kagome didn't care about being overheard as she told him with a shaky voice, "I…I can sense the pallbearers of the next world."

His eyes widened in recognition.

"You mean…those creepy little demon-things that carry your soul away when you die?"

Nodding her head slowly, Kagome looked for all the world like a hostage in a bank robbery, afraid to say or do anything that might get her shot.

"Not everyone can sense them, but I…I've always been able to. I used to hate it but I've gotten used to it. But they…they don't show up until only a few minutes before…" She couldn't complete that thought, not that she needed to.

"Whose is it? Can you tell?" Inuyasha whispered, unaware if she could pinpoint something like that. He had a sinking suspicion as to why she was so terror-stricken rather than merely remorseful and perhaps even bitter about this particular 'gift', if you could call it that, but he refused to jump to conclusions. "Some old geezer about to have a heart attack or somethin'?"

Numbly, Kagome shook her head 'no'.

"I…they…there's usually three, maybe four, per person. I can sense _hundreds_…" she whispered.

"Fuck…"

"Yeah..."

"Can you sense any for yourself?" Inuyasha asked next, causing Kagome to recoil somewhat as if slapped.

"How the hell should _I_ know? Probably! It's not like I've ever sensed them for myself _before_, now have I?"

"Be quiet!" he hushed as a flight attendant came by.

"Is everything all right?" she asked.

"Just peachy." Inuyasha grumbled with a glare that quickly had the woman scurrying up the aisle.

Turning and glancing out the window into the gradually brightening sky of early pre-dawn morning, Kagome didn't notice the way Inuyasha was staring at her. She didn't notice the way he opened his mouth, or slowly inhaled, getting ready to say whatever it was that had been on the tip of his tongue seconds before the plane suddenly dropped over five hundred feet, everyone in the cabin screaming from the plunge as the oxygen masks fell from their compartments. A loud scraping sound preceded something metallic catching Kagome's eye, and she turned back to the window just in time to see a large piece of metal go flying past.

_Shit! I think that was part of the wing! _

Suddenly, the plane was spinning, falling in a downward spiral, with a panic-stricken pilot's voice begging everyone to remain calm over the loud speaker.

Cursing to himself that he was really going to let Sesshoumaru hear it for this one, Inuyasha was pulled out of his grumblings by the unexpected sensation of somebody squeezing his hand, and turning to his side with wide eyes, he was completely thrown for a loop by the way Kagome had reached for him, seeking comfort in his presence. _His _presence. She was holding his hand in a death grip, no thought in mind of his youkai blood, her eyes pinched shut as silent tears streamed down her face. Suddenly, Inuyasha felt an almost uncontrollable urge to protect her. He didn't know where the sensation had come from or why, but he knew not to fight his instincts. Unconsciously, inu-youkai did possess the natural instinct to protect, though only those people they considered to be theirs. Maybe it had something to do with his earlier passing thought that he and Kagome were alike in a way because they were like opposite sides of the same coin; he'd made a connection with the girl to himself and he couldn't ignore the feeling in his heart even if he wanted to, his inner youkai would drive him crazy with remorse. There was nothing he could do for the other passengers, their fates had already been sealed the moment the pallbearers had shown up, but Kagome couldn't be certain if there had been any pallbearers sent for her, and he would make sure that none of them got her.

Reaching over with his left hand to grab her arm and shake it gently to get her attention, he no longer gave a shit about secrecy as he yelled over everyone else's screaming, "Can you make a barrier?"

"Only a purifying one!" she yelled back, "I never mastered the solid ones!"

"Okay then, come on!" he said as he tugged, forcing her to her feet.

"Where are we going?" she shouted in confusion as she grabbed her purse on instinct before allowing him to inch them down the aisle the best they could with all the shaking and spinning, crying children and praying adults huddled in their seats all around.

"You wanna stay here?" he asked incredulously.

Realization dawned as they reached the emergency door and he grabbed the handle. It was hard to stay upright on his feet with the way the plane kept jerking and turning and he quickly decided to ditch the sandals. He couldn't afford to botch this jump.

_Shit, and my iPhone is gonna get ruined_. _Sesshoumaru owes me __big__ time_.

"What are you doing?" Kagome asked, her voice softer, a hint of hope in her eyes.

"Saving you." he answered gently, before effortlessly grabbing her and hoisting her onto his right hip, instructing her to wrap her arms and legs around him while he supported her with his right hand under her bottom. It was an incredibly awkward position for her, as if she were a small child, but he held her weight effortlessly and in that moment she didn't give a _shit _about propriety.

Moving her purse strap from her right shoulder to over her head, so that it hung across her body from her left shoulder and wouldn't fall off, she tightened her arms around him and told him, "I'm ready whenever you are."

As he tightened his grip on the emergency door handle with his left hand, a flight attendant appeared out of nowhere ordering him away from the door. He knew that opening it would depressurize the cabin, but since he already had spiritual conformation from the woman in his arms that everyone on board was dead, anyway, it didn't matter to him. Besides, they were descending so fast he seriously doubted they were still at an elevation that would cause everyone to pass out, and even if they were, that might be preferable. They had oxygen masks anyway, not that those would do them any good in the long run. He hoped Kagome wouldn't pass out, but they certainly couldn't stay on board so it was a risk he had to take. He didn't know if Kagome could survive the drop, but it was her only chance; he had to try. Ignoring the flight attendant, he opened the door, earning a new round of screams from everyone else on board. Keeping his position with his incredible strength as he gripped the edge of the doorway with his left hand, he gaped in horror himself at the true extent of the damage when he leaned out to look once the vacuum effect was over, staring disbelievingly at how over half of the right wing was gone as if the panels had merely pealed back and torn away. And it was still continuing to shed new pieces, creating larger and larger gaps in the framework. It looked like the whole damn wing was about to fall off. There was no recovering from that, and so he felt confident that his opening of the door wouldn't turn out to be what'd led to everyone's demise.

Preparing himself as he inched his feet closer to the doorway until his toes were overhanging, he did his best to gauge their altitude and rate of descent, knowing he would only get one shot at this. Ordering over the incredible ruckus for Kagome to hold onto him as if her life depended on it, because it _did_, he counted to three and then he jumped, kicking off and launching himself as far away from the plummeting plane as possible.

He had been prepared to brace himself against the sound of Kagome screaming in his ear, but the girl remained silent, squeezing him so tightly that were he human she might have actually broken a rib or two. Settling the two of them into a vertical position after a moment of midair fumbling, Inuyasha took a moment to glance around them in all directions, and mentally praising the gods when he spotted a tiny landmass in the distance, he quickly took note of its position in relation to the rising sun. By the kami, he might just pull this off. Because they were going to land in the water, he had high hopes that Kagome would survive the fall, so long as she didn't panic and inhale a lung full of water. But surviving the fall wouldn't have done them very much good if they were just going to be stranded out in the middle of the ocean for who knew how long. Now, they had a real chance.

"You're going to have to straighten your legs now, I'm afraid they might bend the wrong way and break or pull something if you keep them wrapped around me like that when we hit the water." he told her after a moment, doing his best to continue gauging their rate of descent. At least with the morning sun breaching the eastern horizon he could see through the water below them deep enough to assure him that there weren't any hidden peaks they might crash into.

Silently nodding her compliance, Kagome let herself be weightless in Inuyasha's arms as he moved her to where he wanted her, not a difficult feat to accomplish when she was already weightless from their freefall. He maneuvered her to his front, as if the two of them were merely hugging, standing face to face to each other, except he held her up higher so that his feet were well below hers and would break through the water's membrane first so that when her legs came through it wouldn't feel like landing on concrete. Her arms were still wrapped tightly around him, not that he could blame her. Were the situation less dire, he might have been tempted to make a joke about the way her skirt was flaring up in the wind, or the feel of her panty-clad ass cheeks as her position against him inadvertently had him cupping her ass as he held her to him, but he would save those jokes for a few days down the road, once they had both survived this.

"Hold your breath." he instructed loudly as they neared the end of their fall, the plane having already hit with a fiery explosion that'd had her cringing at the sound. "Whatever you do, don't breathe in until we're clear, I'm not sure how deep we're gonna go, and don't try to swim up yourself, just hang onto me and be still, I'll get us both to the surface."

"Okay…" she whispered weakly before sucking in a big gulp of air, looking down despite her fear so that she could properly brace for impact.

When they hit, it was definitely a jarring experience, and it took all Kagome had to not allow all the air in her lungs to whoosh out of her at the impact. Her legs were spared the shockwave of breaking through the surface membrane, but suddenly plunging however deeply they had gone underwater…_cold _water…was definitely no picnic. Afraid to open her eyes, she kept them closed and merely concentrated on holding onto her rescuer. She felt it when Inuyasha released his own hold on her, and despite the highly inappropriate way he'd been touching her, she couldn't help the tiny part of her that wanted his hands right back where they'd been, only for the added security, of course. But it stood to reason that he needed use of his arms to get them both to the surface, so she did as instructed and hung on, trying her best not to get in the way as she felt his legs kick powerfully below her own.

Inuyasha, meanwhile, was mentally cursing up a storm as he did his best to get them both back to the surface as quickly as possible, which was surprisingly hard to do in blue jeans, though his youkai strength still meant that he was much better at it than a human would be. As soon as they were fully submerged he had immediately started kicking his legs in a desperate attempt to slow and cease their descent, but despite his best efforts, he was worried that they had still gone so far down that Kagome wouldn't be able to hold her breath long enough to reach the surface. He felt it as tiny streams of air bubbles started to leave her lips in quick bursts, the girl no doubt releasing some of the building pressure in her lungs in a desperate attempt at prolonging the need to inhale, and he silently begged her to hang on just a little bit longer. They had gone down further than he'd thought they would, though he didn't think their depth was enough to warrant serious concern of Kagome developing the Bends or some other kind of decompression sickness as a result of their rapid ascent. Besides, he didn't have much of a choice. First, prevent the girl from drowning, then worry about whether or not she developed some kind of a problem in her bones or skin.

Nearing the surface, he stopped stroking with his arms and grabbed Kagome around the waist, startling the girl though she didn't have time to worry about gasping in surprise while she was still underwater, because just as quickly as she'd noticed the sensation of his hands grabbing her sides, she suddenly found herself thrust up into the air, and she immediately took in greedy gulps of the precious substance. Inuyasha's head was soon to follow, the hanyou able to hold his breath much longer, which was why as soon as the surface had been within arm's reach he had thrust Kagome up above him. Now, as the two of them separated from each other and each kept themselves afloat on the water's edge, Inuyasha allowed Kagome a few minutes to catch her breath and get her bearings while he shook the water out of his ears.

"Ugh…balls in the stomach is definitely not fun." he grumbled more to himself. "You okay?" he asked her then.

_Probably the deepest douche she's ever had_… he mentally chuckled, though his humor was short lived as he caught the expression on her face.

Having turned to stare in a combination of shock and remorse, with a great deal of relief mixed in despite her guilt at feeling such a thing, Kagome couldn't tear her eyes away from the wreckage of the plane that wasn't too close but also not too far away, as she muttered under her breath, "That could have been me."

"It could have been, but it wasn't." Inuyasha replied, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Offering him a sad smile, she commented ruefully, "At least I don't have to worry about getting eaten by a shark with you here beside me. Who knows how long before any search and rescue people show up?"

Squeezing her shoulder lightly before releasing, Inuyasha said, "If we were truly stranded in the middle of the ocean in the middle of nowhere, waiting here for the authorities to show up would be your only chance, and I'd wait here with you, but no normal human should have survived that, so if we can help it it would actually be best to avoid getting found by the humans."

Despite her urge to point out that she _was _human, Kagome knew she had only survived because of him, because he had broken through the water for her and had used his incredible strength to get them both back to the surface after such a perilous plunge. Even if attempting such a stunt on her own wouldn't have killed her outright, she most likely would have broken a bone or two, and just ended up dying in the ocean helpless and alone when the first aquatic predator showed up. The fact that she was unhurt shouldn't have been possible, and the logical part of her mind, the part that had been trained for years by a powerful elderly miko, knew that it was her duty, and Inuyasha's as well, to keep the 'average' human population in the dark when it came to such seemingly miraculous things.

But what other choice did they have besides wait there for the rescue boats? The way he'd said it implied there was a second option.

Seeing the question in her eyes, Inuyasha pointed towards the eastern horizon and told her, "While we were dropping I spotted a tiny island in that direction. I don't think it's part of Hawaii, we hadn't been in flight long enough to be that close to the United States, but there's probably a whole bunch of tiny uninhabited islands all along the ring of fire. It's within swimming range, or at least it is for me, so we can wait there for my brother to come for us. As much of a dick as Sesshoumaru can be at times, as soon as he catches wind of my plane going down he'll either rush out here himself or send somebody else, because I probably wouldn't have died in that crash and he would realize the same thing I just said, about how we can't allow the human authorities to stumble upon survivors where there shouldn't be any. If it weren't for you I don't know if I would've jumped, but I would've definitely swam clear once the plane hit to avoid getting found by anyone other than a fellow youkai, and once Sesshoumaru finds out he'll know that I'm stranded and waiting for him. Hell, and supposin' I _had _died, then that'd be even worse, 'cause then they'd have my body and realize what I was. Just because of that slim possibility, I'm sure Sesshoumaru won't pussyfoot around. Even though the bastard won't admit it, he'll be relieved that I survived, even if his only excuse is because my death would have compromised the security of our species. He has friends everywhere, and so it'll just get reported that I…and you…happened to miss our flight, and that's how come we didn't die in the crash. We weren't on board."

Nodding her understanding to everything he said, Kagome glanced towards the east, towards the island she couldn't see, and said, "Well…I would only survive out here in the ocean for a limited time, anyway, with no water and no shelter from the sun. So going to an island to wait for rescue definitely sounds better, even if it makes the rescue itself take a little longer. I know you're probably right that your brother will rush out here as soon as he finds out, but how long will that take?"

Shrugging best he could, Inuyasha didn't want to admit that he'd been so pissed off at his brother the previous morning that he'd never bothered telling him exactly which flight he had booked. He'd chewed Sesshoumaru out before leaving the manor that he hadn't been able to book a private plane and had to take 'public transportation', but that'd been as far as it'd gone. He'd left the house early in the morning because he hadn't wanted to be in his brother's company any longer than necessary, and also because he'd heard horror stories about how long it could take to get through airport security and he hadn't wanted to risk missing his plane, so he'd gotten to the airport several hours earlier than he'd needed to be there and had passed the time in the onsite ramen shop. Sesshoumaru rarely paid that close attention to human events, so even if he caught wind of the crash it probably wouldn't be of any concern of his, or at least, not until the appointed district manager of their Los Angeles office contacted him to inquire as to why the younger brother failed to make their conference, which was in three days.

_Maybe when he hears about the crash on the news he'll feel the tiniest bit of concern, or curiosity, and try to call me, then call the hotel_… he hoped.

At least Sesshoumaru did know which hotel he was staying at, considering they owned it. It had just been easier to buy the place to ensure the presidential suite was always available for whenever either of them might need it. It was also standard procedure, he was sure, that the airline would go over the flight manifest and try their best to contact the next of kin of everyone on board, in the event of such a crash. That might take a couple of days, but so he was certain that Sesshoumaru _would_ eventually find out; it was only a matter of when. In the meantime, though, it wouldn't do either one of them a bit of good to just sit there bobbing up and down in the ocean.

"The island looked tropical from what I saw, covered in green, so there's definitely either a direct water source or it rains all the time. Don't worry, after everything you just survived, I won't let you die" he vowed to the woman beside him, swearing to himself that no matter how long it took them to get rescued, he would do whatever was in his power to make sure she survived the ordeal.

The look Kagome gave him at those words was so touching that he found himself having to turn away, staring east while pretending to calculate the distance to the island as he concentrated on getting his rising heart rate back under control. Damn that woman. He would _really _find her attractive if he weren't still pissed off at her over the whole miko/hanyou thing. He was still pissed off at her, wasn't he?

_Ah hell, like I can stay mad at the wench after the way she clung to me for dear life_. _There ain't a drop of prejudice in her body_…

Before, calling the truce, he had merely decided to act civilly towards her for the sake of diplomacy, deciding to give her the benefit of the doubt for her initial reaction to his presence on the plane. That hadn't been to say that he thought the two of them would become best friends. Surely she still had an imbedded mistrust of youkai, just as he couldn't so easily shake off his natural wariness of spiritual humans. Just because he'd realized that it would be foolish to automatically hate her under the pretence of assuming she automatically hated him, there was a huge difference between not wrongfully hating somebody and openly _liking _them. He could be neutral about it, but that was as far as he'd been willing to go, or so he'd thought, chatting with her casually as he would likely have done with a normal human, merely for the sake of being polite. But something had definitely stirred within him when she'd suddenly announced sensing the servants of death, and the way she'd held his hand while silently crying as their plane had dropped from the sky. Under normal circumstances, he couldn't just arbitrarily decide to reveal himself to save a random human being. The laws of the youkai council demanded that their secrecy take precedence over individual preference, the good of the many outweighing the good of the few and all that. But because Kagome was a miko, that had actually given him the ability to save her, because she was already in the know and so therefore it didn't matter.

True, there wasn't really any kind of a contract between their people that warranted such an action. It wasn't as if he would have gotten in trouble with the spiritualist council if they found out there had been a miko on board and he had _not _saved her. They were the secret military in place to _kill _his kind should somebody of youkai blood get out of hand, so he was definitely not obligated to save one of them, and he doubted most other youkai would have bothered to do so. There wasn't any type of partnership between the youkai and the spiritualists; they were enemies on opposite sides of an ancient war that were each obeying the rules of their modern day peace treaty, nothing more. Perhaps it wasn't his youkai instincts after all but actually because he was half human, and it had been the human man in him that had gone soft in the face of her tears? Having both sides living within him, sometimes it got a little difficult to tell the two sides apart. He only knew what he felt at any given time, not necessarily knowing which side of himself had dictated those feelings. Whatever the case, though, what was done was done, and he would keep his vow; he wouldn't let her die, no matter what.

Gazing back towards the site of the crash, he momentarily contemplated leaving her for a moment to go to the wreckage of the plane in the hopes of finding some undamaged supplies from the kitchen, such as bottled water, but he quickly thought better of it when it would mean leaving her by herself in the open ocean, where sharks were a genuine concern. Especially since the crash would actually lure them there with the scent of blood. If it came down to it, he could always leave her alone on the island for a few hours and swim back out to the crash at a later time. He used to swim laps around the southern edge of Honshu as part of his physical training regimen, before the humans became too numerous and technologically advanced where such a stunt was bound to get spotted and monitored, so he could definitely handle an extended period of time in the water. It was mild torture on the ears, but that was a small price to pay for the bragging rights it'd earned him among his brother's companions when he'd won a fifty-kilometer race with a water-youkai. The aquatic demon might have had the advantage of not needing to breathe, but Inuyasha could move so fast on the surface of the water that he was practically pushing himself off of the membrane with each stroke and kick as if he were a dog running on all fours along the ground. In the end, despite the water-youkai's natural agility, his speed had simply been greater.

Of course, he knew he couldn't swim he and Kagome to the island at his top speed, otherwise the abrasions of the water would probably rip the poor girl's skin off. No, with her in tow he would definitely have to go slower. She might be a miko with her own brand of magic spells, but she was still a human; she was still mortal and just as fragile physically as any other human being. He wouldn't forget that.

"Okay, well…come on." he said at last, instructing her to fold her arms over herself to hold onto her purse and also to keep the limbs out of his way, as he swam by kicking his feet while back-stroking with only his right arm, holding her to his side with his left arm wrapped around her body like a lifeguard would do.

It was slow going and unnecessarily difficult with his baggy denim weighing him down as if his legs were tethered, but for about a half hour or so he tried to push through it, figuring he really had no other option. Finally, though, he just couldn't stand it any more and suddenly brought he and Kagome to a stop.

"Okay…pants gotta go." he muttered grumpily.

"Ex…ex_cuse _me?" Kagome questioned, blinking in confusion and shock at his unexpected comment.

"Feh, you ever tried swimming in jeans?"

"Well…no…"

Pissed off and a little embarrassed by what he was about to do, Inuyasha first reached into his pockets and pulled out his dead iPhone, his wallet soon to follow, handing both items to Kagome to put in her purse. Thankfully, her purse had a zipper closure.

"Here, do me a favor and stick my wallet and this hunk of junk in your purse. I doubt it'll ever work again, or at least not properly, but that still don't mean I wanna just lose it in the ocean."

"O-okay…" Kagome replied, still a little shaken up by the thought of what he was about to do. Taking his cell and wallet, she put both items in her purse and zipped it back closed.

Everything of hers in the bag was ruined as well, but at least she still _had _it, and their IDs were kind of important. She was thankful she had grabbed her purse if for no other reason than not having to order all new IDs and credit cards. Plus she had a few other items in her purse that she thought might just come in handy once they got to the island. That was, if she _made _it to the island without dying from embarrassment first.

As Inuyasha fiddled with his pants in the water Kagome diligently turned the other way, offering the man whatever privacy she could. The sound of his voice saying "No need to turn around, you're gonna end up seeing it all at some point anyway." had her face flaming anew, but she stubbornly kept her eyes averted until his pants were fully removed.

"Here," he said then, getting her attention by shoving his jeans in her face. "Hold onto these and _do not _drop them."

Gulping, Kagome nodded, clutching the faded blue fabric to her chest as if it were more precious than a newborn baby.

"You hold onto those, I'll hold onto you. I'll be able to swim much faster now, and if you…feel anything…sorry in advance but it can't be helped."

Instinct had her automatically looking down through the water at _those _words, and her face flamed even brighter at the realization that he didn't have any underwear on.

_Get a grip_… she mentally scolded herself, subconsciously tightening her grip on his pants at the command. _This is hardly the time or place to think such things_. _This is a very serious, life or death situation_. _Be embarrassed later_.

Successfully getting her emotions under control, Kagome stated her readiness to resume their journey, holding tightly onto his jeans and her purse as he tugged her along the ocean surface as fast as they could go before it would start to give her a friction burn. A few times as he kicked she noted that she could definitely feel…something…brushing against the side of her right leg, but she supposed he was probably just as embarrassed as she was, if not more so, so for his sake and her own she wouldn't say anything. Zoning out, she closed her eyes and concentrated on nothing but keeping her arms gripped tightly across her chest, holding onto her precious cargo while the tender way his left arm was wrapped around her body told her just how precious he thought _his _cargo was.

Judging by the position of the sun, it was about two hours later that Inuyasha announced that they were finally almost there, and opening her eyes to glance over her shoulder, Kagome couldn't suppress the giant grin that spread across her face as she caught sight of the small tropical island they were rapidly approaching. At first she thought that perhaps she could take it from there, and was about to tell Inuyasha that he could let go of her so that he could get dressed, but the way the waves quickly started swelling as they neared the shoreline had her immediately realizing she would definitely need his help for a while longer to avoid getting pulled right back out to sea.

"Ya ever gone body surfin' before?" he asked casually as he guided them up a particularly large swell before riding it back down.

"Can't say I have." she answered back, unable to mask the mild hint of amusement in her voice despite all that'd happened. Honestly, what was with this guy?

"I can't really do this back strokin' though, so here, climb on top of me." he instructed then, rolling them both over so that he was on his stomach and Kagome was on her stomach on his back.

Something about him being half youkai gave him the uncanny ability to float almost effortlessly, or maybe it was just that he was so strong that he had no trouble keeping himself at the surface of the water with sheer muscle power alone, but whatever the case, the added weight of her clinging to his back didn't seem to affect his buoyancy at all. His comment about body surfing quickly had her realizing his intent, so shifting herself the best she could, she made sure her grip on his jeans was tight before also reaching up to grip both shoulders, prepared to 'ride' him, as much as the term made her groan in her mind at the unwanted pun. While trying to get herself situated her knee accidentally rubbed up against his bare ass crack, and she couldn't miss the way he chuckled at the hitch in her breath as her body froze at the contact.

"Didn't know you swung that way, priestess, but if you want to molest me can you at least wait until after I'm done rescuing you?" he teased, causing an indignant squeak to come out of Kagome that had him laughing even harder as she quickly moved her leg.

_The nerve! _she silently fumed, though she refused to rise to his bait by saying anything aloud. She was certain he was only trying to mess with her. Maybe he was trying to defuse the tension of the situation with humor, but if that were the case then his sense of humor definitely left much to be desired. If that was his actual personality, as she had briefly contemplated back on the plane, then Heaven help her; her rescuer would end up being the death of her.

She had to admit, though, that he actually did seem to know what he was doing, as he positioned them both to ride the next wave, using the water's momentum to bring them both that much closer to shore instead of getting caught up in any of the backward currents that she knew she would've been hopelessly caught up in if she'd attempted swimming the rest of the way inland by herself. At the backwards motion that began around them, as the next wave formed, he paddled them both into position, and then down they went, zipping another several feet closer to the island that looked much larger than she'd first thought, now that they were upon it.

Finally reaching the shallows of the beach, Kagome dismounted from her hanyou boogie board once she had full confidence that she could handle it the rest of the way by herself. It wasn't as if she'd never gone swimming at the beach before, she'd just never been as far out into the ocean as the surfers, where the waves were larger and more dangerous. It was a little harder than normal to gain forward momentum with her Mary Jane shoes strapped on her feet, acting like heavy anchors that felt like they were keeping her in place as she tried to kick, though she could handle it, switching to more of a frog-kick style to get better control. Still, it made her sympathize with her rescuer's plight, when he'd had to shed his denim in order to gain more speed. Handing Inuyasha back his jeans, she had believed that he would pause a moment to get dressed while still under water, so it was yet another cause for mortification when he merely thanked her, taking the jeans and slinging them across his back as he continued to paddle towards shore. Ordering herself to keep her eyes forward, Kagome swam the rest of the way the best she could without unbuckling her shoes. She didn't know which would be worse, swimming ahead of him and giving him a possible glimpse up her skirt, or allowing him to get ahead of her and catching an eyeful of ass, so she did her best to stay beside him. He must have sensed her desire and decided to oblige, to which she was eternally grateful, as he continued to match her stride until they got into shallow enough water that they could each find purchase with their feet and walk the rest of the way onto the beach.

_Don't look, don't look, don't look_… Kagome chanted in her mind as the half-youkai who was very much a _man_, and very much naked from the waist down, walked along side her through the sand. Of course, it didn't help matters that her blouse was virtually transparent, her white bra underneath not much better. Glancing down at herself in the sunlight, she could clearly make out her dark tan nipples as they waved hello, protesting the cold by making themselves as visible as possible. Groaning under her breath, the miko who was not truly a miko quickly decided that propriety simply had to take a back burner to survival. She wasn't a puritan, so let him tease her. He'd just saved her life, so a little nipple action was the least she could do to repay him, she decided sarcastically. She just hoped he wouldn't rip on her for their color, since pink nipples were supposedly a symbol of purity. She could see him having a field day with that one, what with her being a miko and all, but she'd just never much cared for shallow fashion trends.

"Well that was certainly…unexpected." Inuyasha suddenly spoke up beside her, nearly earning Kagome's glance his way before she remembered herself and stopped her head from turning at the last moment. Chuckling quietly, he found her embarrassment so damn cute that it overrode his own.

"You don't gotta avoid lookin' at me, ya know. I lost my modesty over three hundred years ago."

_Here we go_… she thought, closing her eyes and mentally counting to three. She would _not _be bested by his smug-ass commentary.

"Okay then." she replied almost cheerfully, turning to glance his way.

Of course, she couldn't help the way her eyes automatically drifted across the full expanse of his body. Even though he was still wearing his t-shirt, the wet fabric was clinging to every muscular curve he possessed, revealing a strong chest and six-pack abs. Of course, the part of his body _not _covered by clothing quickly became the main focus of her scrutiny, a smirk of triumph making its way to her lips at the obvious tinting of pink on his cheeks when she glanced back up at his face as her inspection lingered much longer than necessary.

_Ha! Take that! _

He hadn't thought she'd actually take him up on his offer to ogle him, had he?

Doing his best to pretend he wasn't flustered, he thought to get her back by commenting on her own revealing state of dress, wondering if she'd realized just how see-through her shirt and bra actually were.

"Heh, guess the water was kinda cold, huh?" he smirked, gesturing blatantly to her exposed chest.

"You tell me." she answered with a nod towards his groin, grinning in victory as he cringed before turning away.

"Ouch." he joked lightly to hide his embarrassment, tugging on his jeans.

_Kagome 1, Inuyasha 0, _he thought, as he struggled with the wet fabric until finally getting his pants to obey him.

Properly covered, he headed past the miko and into the jungle that started just a few feet behind them.

"You stay here for a sec. I'm gonna go scout around and see if there might possibly be anybody else on this island, and also see if I can track down a stream of fresh water or somethin'."

Nodding her understanding, Kagome asked, "Should I try to fashion an SOS on the beach out of palms or something?"

"No, nothing that the humans might spot. Sesshoumaru'll be able to find us from scent."

"Okay, well…hurry back." she stated softly, making her way over to a rock large enough to sit on.

"Keh, miss me already, do you?"

"Don't flatter yourself."

Laughing quietly, Inuyasha started to turn to leave before pausing for a second, commenting over his shoulder, "By the way, I'm glad you don't bleach 'em. I've actually always preferred brown nipples over pink."

Her face erupted into crimson as he disappeared into the trees, the sound of his laugher echoing on the breeze as he left Kagome to her own devices for the time being.

_Well_… she supposed after a moment, _At least that wasn't an insult_…

Doing her best to shake off her embarrassment, she opened her purse, deciding to take both her and Inuyasha's phones apart just on the off chance that they might _possibly _still work after properly drying…not that either one of them would have a signal, unless his phone happened to be a satellite phone, which she supposed was possible though not too likely. She wasn't sure how long she sat there, but she was comforted by the fact that she still had Inuyasha's phone and wallet. Surely he wouldn't have ditched her…right? Laying back on the large rock, she decided to soak up some sun and dry herself off for a bit, as well.

About an hour in, curiosity finally got the better of her. Sitting back up she opened his wallet to check his ID, taking note that his current alias was 'Kenji Taisho'. It was a nice, generic, unassuming name, and yet still so fitting in its own right.

'_Strong second son' definitely sounds appropriate, _she thought, sighing wistfully as she relived her all too recent rescue. She would definitely be dead if it weren't for him.

With curiosity getting the better of her, Kagome continued to snoop for a moment longer, discovering Inuyasha had been telling the truth about his Black American Express card, not to mention a Black Visa, a Platinum Visa, and a whole slew of other cards she finally realized it was none of her business to be going through. The name 'Taisho' was glaringly familiar, she was sure she'd heard it on the TV several times over whenever her father had been watching the business news, so if Inuyasha was a part of the company she _thought _he was then he hadn't been exaggerating when he'd said he was made of money. Not that she'd let such a thing intimidate her. So he was rich, good for him.

Closing his wallet with a sigh, she sat it down on the rock beside her, next to their dismantled cell phones, and promptly went about emptying everything else out of her purse so that everything could dry off better. A few times she heard what sounded like somebody approaching, although she knew there was no way Inuyasha could sneak up on her with how powerful his aura was, so she brushed it off as sounds of the island, tropical birds rustling the foliage or something else equally harmless. She seriously doubted there were any predators she had to worry about, aside from an incredibly sexy inu-hanyou, that is.

_Gah! Bad thoughts_… she mentally scolded herself. Even though she had teased him about the water being cold, the truth was, considering that the water actually _was _really cold…

_Maybe youkai just don't suffer from shrinkage_… she silently pondered. If they did, then damn.

But where the hell _was _he? Glancing up at the position of the sun, she figured it had probably been another hour or so, give or take. Maybe he had actually found other people and so he was negotiating their rescue or something? She would be tempted to consider the possible that he'd gotten lost, but she highly doubted an inu-hanyou was _capable _of getting lost, at least not while there wasn't anything obscuring his scent trail. Around the time she was just starting to become seriously concerned, she suddenly felt a large demonic aura brush up against her senses, and immediately recognizing the powerful youki as belonging to her rescuer, she jumped to her feet to greet him as he reemerged through the trees.

"Sorry…didn't meant to be gone so long." he apologized sincerely instead of teasing her in the face of her obvious relief, to which she felt relieved all over again. She was once again leaning towards his brass humor being more of an act, with a genuine sensitive guy lingering just under the surface somewhere.

"Find anything?"

Nodding, he said, "I've got some good news and some bad news." His mostly laid back demeanor suggested the former greatly outweighed the latter.

"Which is?" she prompted.

Taking a breath, he informed her, "I found a few fresh water pools scattered about, tiny ponds full of rain water that smells pretty clean and should be safe for you to drink. Judging by how wet the ground is everywhere, it rained pretty hard here not that long ago."

Finishing with what was clearly the good news, he then added, "Unfortunately, this is definitely an uninhabited island, so we are officially stuck waiting for my brother to send out a demonic search party. I was hoping it'd turn out there were signs of modern-day life maybe just on the other side of the island or something, where I could use somebody's phone, but no such luck."

"You…you searched the _whole island?" _she asked in amazement. Sure, he'd been gone for a couple of hours, but that was nowhere near enough time to-

"Keh, it ain't that big of an island." he brushed off, interrupting her thoughts, adding with a smirk of pride, "And I _am _pretty fast."

Rolling her eyes, Kagome decided to give him that one. Small or no, the fact that he'd apparently searched the whole damn island in only a couple of hours was pretty impressive in her book. She also knew damn well that he wasn't really stuck there, regardless of what he'd said. It was clear to her that he could swim all the way to Hawaii, if he _wanted _to. He wasn't stranded at all, and was _choosing _to stay with her until help arrived. True, waiting for his brother would probably have been protocol, regardless. Just randomly showing up in the States would trigger questions, after all. But in that moment, the realization that this demonic man was willing to stay stranded with her in the middle of nowhere for however long it took somebody to find them, merely to ensure her own well-being…that really meant a lot to her.

"Thank you." she stated sincerely, catching him off guard with the heaviness of emotion lacing her words, since he'd thought she would've risen to his bait regarding the 'fast' comment.

"Uh…you're welcome." he replied lamely, a faint touch of pink shading his cheeks that he quickly hid from view by turning to face the trees. "Well, come on, I found a good spot to setup camp." he added as he crouched down.

Scooping up all of their belongings and putting everything back in her purse, Kagome turned back around only to stare in confusion as he glanced over his shoulder at her expectantly. It quickly dawned on her that he wanted her to climb onto his back.

"I can walk, ya know."

"Keh, it'd take you forever. Come on, you can trust me."

She would've been more inclined to believe him had he not suggestively waggled his eyebrows at those words, but if the place he wanted to take her to was really too much of a walk for her then she'd go along with it. Her shoes were still damp, after all. She didn't want to get blisters on top of everything else.

Climbing onto his back, then, she bit her lip to keep from protesting at the way his hands suddenly reached back to grab the undersides of her thighs, hoisting her up into position.

"Hold on tight." he purred, giving her legs a little squeeze.

"Try anything inappropriate and I'll flick your ear." she threatened, her voice sickeningly sweet.

Said appendages shifted a bit on reflex, though as he stood up and allowed her a moment to get properly settled as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, he teased, "And how do you know I don't actually like a little pain?"

"I guess if you decide to overstep your bounds we'll both find out."

Inuyasha wanted to scoff and comment that she could never hurt him, anyway, but considering the strength of her miko aura he thought better of saying something they would both know wasn't true. She could hurt him. She could probably hurt him very easily. Though an ear flick wouldn't really hurt, unless she put some spiritual oomph behind it. But she hadn't threatened to use her miko powers, now had she? It was all fun and games until somebody got hurt, or so they say, but he didn't fear her. The fact that she didn't fear him either was impossible to miss, and despite his better judgment he was thoroughly enjoying pushing her buttons.

Without saying another word he launched them both up into the trees, his ears flattening into his hair as a squeal of surprise ripped out of the girl's throat, her hands suddenly gripping him like a vice.

"Keh, told ya to hold on tight." he commented with a smirk in his voice as he ran at nearly his top speed.

A thousand and one retorts were just on the tip of Kagome's tongue, but she kept them all inside, not wanting to risk actually upsetting the man who currently held her life in his hands, again. Once her feet were back on solid ground, so help him.


	2. Stranded

Chapter 2 – Stranded

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It only took them a couple of minutes to cover a distance that would've definitely taken her at least two hours to walk, and suddenly dropping down from the treetops, Kagome found herself deposited in a shaded seclusion next to one of the ponds of water Inuyasha had mentioned. The canopy overhead was thick and would most likely prevent anyone in a plane or helicopter from spotting them, which he had clearly taken into consideration. Even though one would assume that now that they were on the island they could just pretend to have been stranded there after their boat sank, instead, tracking the modern world's paper trail would definitely reveal the fact that the two of them had been booked on that plane. Considering how far away the island actually was from the site of the crash, that would almost assuredly complicate things even further than the simple fact that they had survived. Inuyasha was right, they needed to avoid humans and get rescued by the youkai. Kagome was a little nervous about how her presence would be received, assuming it wasn't his brother personally that came for them but instead some kind of official rescue party sent by his brother, but she figured that regardless of what anybody's thoughts might actually be on the matter, the situation would be handled professionally and diplomatically. _Especially _considering just who Inuyasha was. Not all youkai were automatically born rich and part of powerful corporations, after all, and even though she had chosen not to associate with the spiritual sect, meaning she had never heard of Sesshoumaru by name and had no idea he was also the head of one of the oldest, most powerful youkai clans in all of Japan, it didn't take a genius to figure out that guys as old and rich as Inuyasha and his brother were people of great importance in the youkai world.

Apparently, they were people of great importance in the _human _world, too, not that she'd let that thought intimidate her any.

Prepared to let him have it now that she was safely on the ground, Kagome inhaled to start her barrage but deflated just as quickly, not from a fear of offending somebody so rich and powerful, but just from figuring that she probably shouldn't say or do anything to piss him off when she owed the man her life. He was a little annoying. Okay, _more _than a little. But he was just being an idiot, and it wasn't like she wasn't already used to dealing with idiots on a daily basis, working her present job as a customer service rep. for a large department store. If there was one thing she had learned how to do, it was bite her tongue and stay polite regardless of how desperately she wanted to curse someone out.

"Okay…" she said more to herself in that moment, clapping her hands in motivation to get moving and not just stand there like an idiot herself.

Inuyasha observed, amused by her diligence, as Kagome immediately went about finding a flat surface on a nearby rock to empty out the contents of her purse a second time, laying out the opened pieces of their cell phones and his wallet along with all of her own personal effects. Besides her keys and clutch, she had a lot of the usual things you would expect to find in a girl's purse, like a small comb, hair tie and chapstick, a tiny bottle of lotion and of course that tiny bottle of Aspirin, a couple of tampons, some foundation and a pocket mirror…but she also had a lot of moderately exotic items that had him quirking his brow. He was especially caught off guard by her Bic lighter, not having picked up even the faintest hint of cigarettes on her breath or clothing, and as she finished emptying her purse he quickly took note that a pack of cigarettes was in fact not among her possessions.

"You don't smoke." he stated rather than asked, fairly certain he was correct.

"Nope," she confirmed, adding, "But I always like to be prepared. Okaa-san calls it my emergency kit. You never know when you might need fire." She sighed. "Under normal circumstances I always have a couple of different Swiss Army knives on me, too, but of course those had to get packed in my suitcase." she lamented, setting aside a mini first-aid box and a hotel-esque sewing kit.

Inuyasha had to admit, Kagome definitely wasn't what he'd expected, though he admittedly didn't know anything about the girl other than the fact that she'd grown up in an ancient shrine in downtown Tokyo, she'd had training at some point in time regarding the use of her powers, and she'd rejected the idea of directly aiding the spiritual sect in Japan in favor of moving to Los Angeles.

As he saw her sigh a second time while going through the rest of her belongings, his heart suddenly panged a bit in his chest. As trivial as some people might have thought it sounded, he could actually sympathize with her loss, as she mourned losing her favorite knives on top of however many outfits and other possessions she'd lost in her luggage, and in that moment Inuyasha was eternally thankful that he had decided in the face of taking a public airline to just leave Tetsusaiga at home.

"I'll buy you new knives once we get back." he told her softly, questioning himself as to why he would bother offering such a thing even as the words were leaving his mouth.

Kagome laughed lightly at his offer, but not in a rude way, shaking her head with a bemused expression as she assured him, "You've already done more for me than I can ever hope to repay. I owe you my life, and not in a figurative manner."

"Keh," he scoffed. "You don't owe me nothin'."

Quickly deciding to lighten the mood, he lowered his voice an octave and added with a seductive purr, "Although, if you really _want_ to repay me…"

He deliberately let his words trail off, waggling his eyebrows up and down when Kagome glanced his way incredulously. As soon as her eyes started to narrow he laughed, letting her know he was only kidding. He then gestured to her 'emergency kit' sprawled out on the large rock, and pointed out how she was missing the most important supply of all.

Rolling her eyes, Kagome guessed, "And what would that be? A condom?"

Laughing even harder, he teased, "My my, _somebody's _got a dirty mind."

"Yeah," she snorted, "And it's rubbing off on me."

"If you don't want me getting any on you, I could rub one off elsewhere."

Her left eye twitched. She would _**not**_be bested by his smug-ass commentary!

"No need to inconvenience yourself, since I doubt I'd notice anyway."

Suddenly, he was in her face.

"Oh…you'd notice, all right." he cooed seductively, suddenly making her feel very uncomfortable.

Flustered, Kagome turned back to her items laid out on the rock, picking up and examining her lighter.

He chuckled. _Kagome 1, Inuyasha 1_…

"Well…the stupid thing doesn't work any more, but the fuel tank seems intact. Water didn't get into it. If we could break into it we could use the fluid to help us start a fire."

Deciding to stop teasing the poor girl for the time being, Inuyasha nodded, suddenly in serious thought.

"Normally, I'd be able to start a fire on my own using the drilling method, but the problem is there's probably not very much dry brush anywhere. The whole island smells wet and musky."

Kagome wanted to make another crack, that what he was smelling was just his own personality, but if he was going to be serious for the time being then she'd let it go.

"There might be dry underbrush in the bushes." she commented, making her way over to a large shrubbery and crouching down to examine the content of dead twigs and leaves piled underneath and within it. There wasn't a huge amount of debris, but what was there was fairly dry.

"Hey, smart thinking." he complemented seriously. "You really are prepared."

Shrugging, she replied, "I used to go camping for a few days at a time with some friends when I was a teenager."

Nodding his understanding, Inuyasha added that bit of information into the very slowly developing file in his mind that was things he knew about Kagome. She wasn't some spoiled city girl, despite living in the concrete jungle. She might be a little out of practice, but she still knew the ways of the land, and that was impressive. She also hadn't once complained about her hair being a mess, or her clothes and other belongings getting ruined. If either one of them was truly spoiled it would be him, he knew, though to be honest he'd never much cared for life in the lap of luxury. Growing up in his father's castle during the opening decades of the Edo period, he had always felt like an outsider, and had spent much of his time in the wilds surrounding their estate, especially after his mother's passing. His mother had been a simple village girl, a passing fancy turned heated love affair, and even though she had been whisked away to live in the castle as his father's most cherished concubine once it'd been discovered she was pregnant, she had never forgotten her humble, modest values, and despite being surrounded by servants and gold and silk, she had taught those values to her son. Inuyasha knew how to read nature because he was half youkai, it was imbedded in him to have a connection to the earth that a normal human would not possess, but it was thanks to his human mother that he knew how to properly mend fabric, treat sickness and injuries, or scale and gut a fish.

Speaking of which…

Rummaging around in a few more of the nearby bushes revealed a decent amount of usable kindling, though to really get a nice fire going, and keep it going, they would need much thicker branches. Kagome would undoubtedly need to eat soon, and while there was edible fruit on the island, he was sure protein would be better for the girl than fruit alone. Catching a few fish wouldn't be a problem for him, but he was fairly certain she would probably want them cooked, which meant the fire had to come first.

"I'm going to go see if I can find any old dead trees still standing that I can take apart for firewood. Anything on the ground will be too saturated, but if it's still up in the air it shouldn't be too wet."

"Okay." she acknowledged as he took off once again, though that time he didn't go as far away since even though she could no longer see or hear him she could still faintly feel his aura brushing up against her own. Surprisingly, she found comfort in the sensation.

Making her way over to the pond, Kagome scooped up a handful of water and gave it an experimental taste. It wasn't all nasty and green, going along with their belief that it had rained fairly recently, meaning the water _was _still pretty fresh, despite being standing water. Ideally, she knew it would be best to boil it first just to be on the safe side, since there could have certainly been older and nastier water already in the pond that had now been mixed together with the fresh rain, but considering she didn't have a pot to boil it _in_, she'd take her chances. She could always get checked out once she got rescued to make sure she hadn't gotten a parasite of some kind. She definitely preferred having questionable water as opposed to no water at all, so counting her blessings she silently thanked the kami and took few more sips.

Thirst temporarily quenched, she decided to get a head start on building their fire pit. Grabbing her hair tie from her rock/table, she tied back the tangled, frizzy mess that was her hair and got to work. Most of the dirt all around was still fairly wet and muddy, but there were also a lot of little rocks around pebble size scattered all about, so digging out a circular pit with her hands about an inch deep or so and around the diameter of a large pizza, she went about lining the bottom with pebbles until it was completely filled in. Circling around the outside of the pit with larger rocks all around the size of a baseball or so, she smiled at a job well done as she took some of their collected kindling from the bolder she'd piled it all on to keep it dry and added it to the fire pit. All that was missing now was the actual firewood, which, if that loud battle cry and crash she'd just heard faintly in the distance was any indication, would be on its way in the next few minutes.

Inuyasha returned to their campsite dragging a giant dead tree behind him that one person should never have been able to move. Kagome watched in open amazement as he made quick work of reducing the tree to a collection of logs and sticks with nothing more than his bare hands, a few lightning fast swipes of his claws completing in a few seconds what would have taken her over an hour to accomplish with an axe. Not that she _had _an axe. No…without Inuyasha she would have been screwed, again.

_No sense in telling him that, though, since I'm sure he already knows_… she decided after a moment, hoping to avoid expanding his ego any more than necessary.

As he went about stacking the first group of wood into the fire pit, though, rather than tooting his own horn Inuyasha was actually feeling impressed by Kagome again, taking note of how the girl had kept herself busy during his absence by preparing for his return with the wood. With her raven tresses tied back in a messy ponytail, she had dirt on her knees and underneath her fingernails, and he couldn't have been happier at the sight. She definitely wasn't a spoiled city girl, which was a good thing because for the last century all of his ex-girlfriends had only be interested in him for his money, and if there was one thing he was really getting sick of it was needy, whiny little bitches who were incapable of lifting a finger to take care of their own damn selves. If Kagome weren't a miko he would've been tempted to exchange phone numbers with the girl and see if she'd like to go out on a real date sometime after rejoining civilization, but youkai and miko don't mix so he'd just count his lucky stars that she was being civil with him while stranded as they currently were. True, _he _wasn't really stranded, but there was no way he was going to abandon her to fend for herself for who knew how long if he left to try and contact his brother. Just because he didn't like babying women who couldn't take care of themselves financially didn't mean he was a heartless bastard when it came to somebody who actually _did _need his help. Even though he couldn't decide if the feeling had originally come from his imbedded instincts as an inu to protect those closest to him, or his human side as a normal man whose heart had gone out to the frightened woman, his intense desire to protect Kagome was still going strong regardless, and if there was one thing he had learned from his _father _before the elder youkai's passing, it was to never ignore his instincts. Perhaps it was his human half that had enabled him to relate to Kagome initially, but now that that connection had been made, his youkai side had since acknowledged her as someone to protect. His two halves were in complete agreement; no matter what, he would keep Kagome safe.

Of course, that wasn't to say that he couldn't have a little fun with the girl, he thought with a smirk. It was refreshing tossing barbs back and forth with somebody who could actually hold her own, who had her own comebacks and didn't just clam up and shout _hentai _while slapping him, or turn into a total skank, ready to spread her legs at the slightest sexual remark. He got the distinct impression that dating Kagome would be fun as hell, if not quite the learning experience. One thing was for sure, he wouldn't be bored; it was just too bad the woman was a miko, because lack of racism aside, there was no way in hell she'd be interested in him _that _way. Even his billions of dollars probably wouldn't change her mind, though of course if it _did _then he wouldn't be interested in her anyway. He was pretty much ready to give up dating gold diggers all together. That was no way to find true love.

Starting their fire with the old fashioned drilling method, it was a task that was much less tedious and time consuming when one was gifted with youkai speed and accuracy. Getting the first few embers to ignite in a matter of minutes, he then carefully laid his fire egg down into the nest of kindling, and taking Kagome's suggestion since the brush was _drier _than the surrounding growth but not _bone_ dry, he carefully broke into her lighter by separating the top assembly from the plastic casing and used some of the fluid within to help give their campfire a little oomph. Flame whooshed to life in a matter of seconds, which he quickly built up with the driest of the wood he had salvaged from the dread tree. Wanting to preserve the rest of her lighter fluid in case the fire should go out, he carefully put the top back on and pushed it down standing upright, lowered about halfway into the dirt against the base of a tree so that it wouldn't fall over and leak.

After a few more minutes of fiddling, they had a fully established campfire merrily crackling and popping before them, and Inuyasha caught himself staring at just how beautiful Kagome looked in the dancing firelight as she knelt in front of the flame for warmth, her hands held up before her palms out.

"What?" she finally asked after a moment, pulling him from his thoughts as he shook his head.

"K-keh. Nothin'…" he spoke up, slightly flustered at the way she quirked an eyebrow at him. Then thinking fast, he smirked and added, "I was just rememberin' the way you looked all wet." as he gestured to her now dry and no longer see-through blouse.

Rolling her eyes, Kagome grumbled, "Well I hope you've got a good memory, 'cause that was the only glimpse you're ever gonna get."

Chuckling lightly, the look in his eyes seemed to say _we'll see about that_, but holding her own, Kagome merely met his amused gaze with her own determined one, assuring him she wasn't playing around.

What could have escalated into a more serious staring contest was quickly robbed of its seriousness when the sound of Kagome's stomach growling had Inuyasha laughing even harder, while the girl looked away with a light dusting of pink on her nose.

"Guess that's my cue." the hanyou said, rising to his feet and dusting his legs off a bit as he prepared to head back to the ocean. "You ain't allergic to seafood are ya?"

"No, but…please don't trouble yourself over me. I'm okay, really…" Kagome began in a quiet voice, catching him by surprise as he turned to meet her eyes as she glanced up at him from her position still kneeling by the fire. "I've noticed a few fruit trees around. You don't have to go hunting on top of everything else you've already done for me. I won't starve to death."

With a twinkle in his eye and obvious touch of humor in his voice, he asked, "What's the matter? Can't stand the thought of owing so much to a hanyou?"

"What? No!" Kagome spoke up in shock before realizing he was only kidding, although he was admittedly relieved by how quickly she'd rejected his insinuation of race having anything to do with it. Her scent was honest, that wasn't her reason at all. "I just…I'm just not used to feeling so helpless. I haven't had to depend on anyone for a long time. I guess I just feel guilty that I'm so useless in this situation."

His eyes softened.

"And because you feel that way, I don't mind helping you out with whatever you need." he answered sincerely, adding, "Besides, _you _might be able to go without meat for a while, but I'm a _dog_, and I sure as hell ain't plannin' on living on _fruit_ for the next few days. So if I'm gonna do it anyway then I may as well catch enough for the both of us."

Chuckling a bit despite herself, Kagome bowed her head while mumbling a quiet thanks, and nodding in turn, he bound off towards the shoreline.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Breakfast/lunch was better than Kagome had been expecting. She wasn't a seafood chef, so she had absolutely no idea what type of fish those were that Inuyasha had managed to catch, but the important thing was that they had tasted okay and gave her a nice 'full' feeling in her belly. Even though she felt a little guilty about it, since he'd done all the work, a larger part of her was definitely glad she wouldn't have to worry about going hungry while stranded out there for however long it took their knight in shining youki to arrive.

The rest of the afternoon passed by rather slowly, but to keep herself occupied Kagome spent the time figuring out just exactly where she was going to sleep, and how to go about fashioning her bedding. The temperature was fairly mild, for the time being, but she suspected it might get quite a bit colder at night. Making a 'nest', as Inuyasha had jokingly called it, out of palm leaves on the ground near the base of a sturdy tree, she piled them on top of each other until she was fairly certain that none of the moisture in the soil would seep up into her clothing during the night. She didn't give a damn about stains, but it was bad enough that she was only wearing a thin blouse and short skirt; she'd rather only be cold than cold and wet.

At least bugs wouldn't be a problem since Inuyasha's youki seemed to be keeping all of the natural little critters of the world at bay, even the ants sensing and fearing the predator in their midst. It made her wonder how he could hunt, supposing his prey would sense him coming and get spooked, but she imagined that being a hanyou must not hinder his ability to flare and retract his aura at will like stronger full-youkai could do, meaning he was presently _letting _his youki buzz at full strength. Silently, she was grateful, since it was keeping the bugs away.

With her makeshift futon taken care of, Kagome quickly went about fashioning a blanket out of yet more leaves, finding a few different varieties that were large and smooth, meaning they would cover her and also wouldn't scratch. Using the thread from her sewing kit sparingly, she stitched several of the large leaves together, several layers thick, until she was satisfied that it was probably the best she'd be able to do given what she had to work with. Fortunately, Inuyasha had since found and demolished a second dead tree, meaning they had plenty of firewood for the time being. Keeping the fire going during the night had been a definite concern of hers, but Inuyasha had already assured her that he didn't need nearly as much sleep as she did, and that he could get up every couple of hours to put more wood on the fire.

Watching her work from his spot perched up above on a sturdy branch of the tree her bedding had been placed against, Inuyasha was slowly becoming mesmerized, and a part of him actually felt torn between wanting Sesshoumaru to hurry up and rescues their asses, and the daiyoukai taking his sweet time so that he could get to know Kagome a little better. A part of him would actually like to get to know Kagome a _lot _better, but snorting to himself, he seriously doubted the miko would be up for _that _sort of 'getting to know' each other. Still, as he continued to watch her work, sewing a bunch of freakin' leaves together like she'd fallen straight out of a Swiss Family Robinson adventure, he couldn't deny the fact that he was fascinated by her. Which was really odd considering the fact that he had spent most of his life diligently trying to _avoid _miko and houshi. He would make one exception, in her case; he definitely wanted to see her again after they left the island. Maybe they could even become friends.

He was pulled from his thoughts at the sound of Kagome quietly singing to herself in English, a smirk slowly forming on his lips as he wondered whether or not she even realized she was doing it.

"Have you ever fed a lover with just your hands? Closed your eyes and trusted, just trusted?" she began, her voice soft and airy but easily reaching the man with demonic hearing perched several feet above her. "Have you ever thrown a fist full of glitter in the air? Have you ever looked fear in the face and said 'I just don't care'?"

_Yes, yes I have_… Inuyasha thought with an amused grin. Well…not the glitter in the air part, but he'd done all of the other things at some point in time or another. He was surprised by Kagome's unexpectedly beautiful voice as she gained a bit more volume for the first chorus.

"It's only half past the point of no return, the tip of the iceberg, the sun before the burn, the thunder before the lightening, and the breath before the phrase… Have you ever felt this way?"

"It's not possible to have thunder before lightening." Inuyasha interrupted comically, biting his tongue to keep from laughing outright at the way she jumped and nearly poked herself with her needle.

Furrowing her brow, Kagome didn't even notice at first how he'd made his comment in English, the two of them having spoken Japanese up to that point. Scowling for a moment, Kagome thought about what he'd said before smiling a bit, glancing overhead to retort with, "It is if the thunder is from a previous bolt of lightning, and when you're in your house and a storm is approaching in the distance, which do you usually notice first?"

"Fine, fine…" he relented easily enough, not having truly wanted to start an argument over something as trivial as Pink lyrics. That was actually a really pretty song.

"I didn't know you spoke English." Kagome commented then as it finally dawned on her, still speaking the American language herself with only the slightest hint of an accent. She immediately felt stupid for saying it right after the words left her lips, considering he owned his own branch of the 'family business' in Los Angeles. Of course the guy would speak English.

"Keh." he scoffed then, deciding not to pick on her for the oversight as he informed her, "I'm over four hundred years old, I speak _several _languages."

She was pleased he'd let her slipup go. "I can see how that'd come in handy."

"Ya know what else comes in handy?"

"Let me guess…_you?"_

Laughing outright, Inuyasha had to admit, he _really _liked her spitfire personality.

"Well, yes, on occasion, but that wasn't what I was going to say." he replied with a smirk she didn't see as she diligently got back to her sewing, cursing mildly under her breath at how little thread she had left and how many leaves she still had to sew.

"Seriously, though…" he continued then, still chuckling a little, "Here," he offered, jumping down and handing her what looked like long strands of silver thread, until she quickly realized it was a few strands of his own hair.

"Inuyasha?"

He just shrugged.

"It's strong, you can't break it unless you use your powers, and there ain't no way you've got enough thread left to sew all that properly. It'd fall apart on you with the slightest tug. This way, you can relax and do it right, layering it up however you need to. You need more just ask, 'cause I got plenty where that came from."

"Thank you…again." she answered with a suspicious looking shimmer gathering in her eyes. He quickly turned away.

"Keh, whatever. You're welcome I guess." he answered casually. "Not like I wanna let you freeze to death." Waggling his brows, he added, "'Course, I could always _hold _you all night to keep you warn."

"Uh…no thanks. The hair/thread will be just fine."

He just laughed again before jumping back up onto his perch.

As the late afternoon rolled around into evening and evening into night, Inuyasha went back out into the ocean to collect two more fish for dinner. He was glad their campsite was a couple of miles inland, meaning he didn't have to worry about Kagome following him, since to keep from getting his clothes wet again he'd stripped naked prior to jumping into the water. He was sure she'd probably figured that part out though she had been polite enough to let it go without mention. She had gotten enough of an eyeful already, so unless the two of them ended up in a mutual state of undress he had no desire to repeat his earlier peepshow. He could also shake himself dry like a dog, which was why his hair had only been a little damp instead of dripping when he'd returned with their first meal earlier in the day. Coming back with dinner now, preparation of the fish was pretty much a repeat of earlier, too, with Kagome stating that she would gladly do the work of scaling and gutting the fish since he had caught them, to share the load, until he once again refused her offer and proceeded to do all of the work himself. He did at least let Kagome monitor their cooking once spitted and over the fire, since he didn't really give a damn and would eat his own fish raw if he didn't fear it might gross her out. Daintily prepared strips of sashimi were one thing, but eating a whole raw fish was something else entirely, and these guys were not sushi grade specimens.

After dinner, Inuyasha mused to himself that the miko's emergency kit really did include everything, as Kagome picked up a small, travel size toothbrush and tube of toothpaste, proceeding to brush her teeth. She didn't have a roll of dental floss, though, instead having only a couple of those individual floss/toothpick things, which she'd grumbled about earlier because regular floss certainly could have come in handy to help tie bunches of leaves together to make a more solid canopy in the branches overhead on the off chance that it might rain again, but she'd make do with what she had. If it got cloudy she'd see if she could use some more of his hair as thread to tie some leaves together to help build up their shelter. In fact, it would probably be a good idea to go ahead and construct a canopy anyway, just in case. There, now she had what she'd do with herself tomorrow figured out, since she'd need to do _something _to pass the time.

Fiddling around a little more as she got ready for bed, Inuyasha watched in silence as she disappeared for a minute behind the trees to relieve herself before reemerging and unbuckling her shoes. Rubbing her toes for a minute, he then observed, contemplative, as Kagome approached their campfire barefoot and carefully took out a medium sized stick from the flame, using the chard end of it to draw a single line down along the side of one of the nearby mini-boulders that littered the surrounding area.

"Marking days?" he asked from his spot up in the tree.

Shrugging, she tossed the stick back into the fire and replied with, "Might as well."

Jumping down, he said, "If it does rains again then that'll wash off, here…" as he proceeded to use his index claw to gouge out a thin line in the trunk of the tree he had been perched in. He actually could have carved a line into the rock, but after the revolution and what most older youkai liked to refer to as 'the great forgettening' where after only a few generations the normal humans of the world suddenly stopped believing in their kind, it had been ingrained in all of them to always watch what they did and to not do anything that shouldn't be possible, and while a human could accomplish carving into the tree with a knife, the bolder…eh, not so much.

"Thanks." Kagome replied for the…she'd lost count of how many times she'd thanked him since this whole ordeal had begun. She would have to make sure to keep in touch with him after getting rescued so she could do…well, there wasn't anything she could really do for him that would properly repay the man for everything he'd done for her, but she couldn't just walk away as if they'd never met. Not that she imagined somebody with his kind of money would care, but she could definitely give him her employee discount at the store she worked at, if that could even possibly equal one preliminary drop in the bucket that was her debt to him.

Settling down into her 'nest', Kagome was grateful for the hairs he had given her that had allowed her to do a much more thorough sewing job on her leaf blanket. The night had indeed dropped in temperature quite a bit, and while it wasn't super cold since they were on a tropical island, she was definitely feeling the chill in her limited state of dress. Piling her surprisingly heavy blanket on top of her, Kagome signed in contentment as it immediately shielded her from the light breeze that had begun about an hour prior. With the nearby fire heating up the leaves nearest to it, it almost felt like she had a partial electric blanket, which was certainly nice, and even though the nest was nowhere near as comfortable as her mattress it wasn't as if she'd never slept on the ground before, so she was definitely confident that she'd be able to get a decent amount of sleep. At least she didn't have to worry about insects buzzing around her face, since even though she could hear the chirping of some crickets in the bushes beyond their camp, her companion's aura was still functioning like a giant 'Off' candle when it came to anything that would normally be attracted by the light of their fire.

"Good night, Inuyasha." she murmured quietly, a triangular ear twitching ten feet above.

"Night, Kagome."

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Ahhhhhh!"

"Kagome!"

Startled out of his light doze, Inuyasha immediately jumped down next to the screaming miko. Kagome was sitting upright, wide frightened eyes frantically searching in the dark.

"Inuyasha…?" she questioned hesitantly, rubbing her eyes as she glanced his way.

"Kagome, are you okay?" he questioned, concerned by the way she kept on blinking at him and shaking her head a bit, as if her eyes couldn't quite focus.

"Damn…I must really be out of it, your glamour keeps popping back up and it's making me dizzy." she muttered, closing her eyes and pinching her nose.

"Oh, here…" he said, reaching into his shirt and pulling off the beaded necklace he'd had on underneath. "I don't need to wear this thing right now, I forgot that you guys actually had to use a bit of your power in order to see through it properly without that weird double-image effect. That'd probably make me dizzy, too."

As soon as he removed the necklace the overlay of his human guise disappeared completely, revealing the hanyou man she'd spent the last day with. Tucking the rosary into his pocket, Inuyasha crouched down in front of the miko and looked her in the eye.

"You all right?"

"Yeah…" she replied sheepishly, turning away with an embarrassed tint to her cheeks. "Just had a nightmare."

"Understandable."

"I'm okay though, really." she assured him, looking him in the eye. "It's not like I did anything to cause those people's deaths, and I know I shouldn't feel guilty that I survived. The kami must have wanted to save me because it wasn't my time yet, which is why you ended up going through the hell you went through with your private jet ordeal. If it hadn't been for you being forced to take that public flight, I would've died."

_She's right_… he thought in that moment, wondering if it really had been divine intervention.

"Well…" he started after a moment, unsure of what to say. "I guess, if I was a pawn of the gods 'cause somebody had to be there to save you…then I'm glad I did my duty." he finally settled upon.

"Me too." she replied with a grin that quickly turned into a yawn, which promptly had him laughing a bit as he instructed her to go back to bed.

"Night…" she muttered sleepily.

"Night." he repeated, putting a little more wood on the fire before jumping back up to his chosen branch.

The following morning, Kagome was awoken by the sound of cheerful birdsong, which promptly had her grumbling to herself about how the stupid birds were way too happy for their own good. Laughter trickled down to her on the breeze.

"Not much of a morning person, are we?"

"Shut up."

Sighing overdramatically, Inuyasha lamented aloud, "Looks like the honeymoon's over."

"Nnng…" Kagome moaned inaudibly as she rolled onto her back and forced herself into a sitting position with a groan of protesting muscles and popping joints.

"You're really _not _much of a morning person." he mused, jumping down from his branch to put more wood on the fire.

"I work the late shift at my job." she confirmed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

He smirked. "Which is what? Exotic dancer?"

Dropping her hand from her face to shoot him a hard glare, she then smirked in turn and said, "Escort service."

He chuckled, knowing she was pulling his leg.

"What do you want for breakfast? More fish or…more fish?"

She laughed a bit. "Fish will be just fine, unless you think you can catch one of those blasted birds. That'd shut 'em up."

"Didn't know you hated birds so much, priestess." he said with a wink.

She crinkled her nose. "Don't call me priestess, and I don't hate 'em, although I am surprised they got used to your youki so fast. You're not masking your aura at all so I'd think it'd scare 'em all off. I guess there's a reason why we have the expression 'bird brain'."

He quirked a brow. "And what makes you think I can even mask my aura?"

"It'd spook the fish."

Smiling, he tapped the side of his head with his index finger, indicating she was using her brain, as he nodded her way appreciatively. Demonstrating, he concentrated and retracted his youki within himself, like spiritually wrapping his arms tightly around his body. His aura was still _there_, and she could definitely still feel it, but it was like muting a full-throated shouted into the quietest of whispers.

"That takes concentration, sorta like you seeing through my concealment charm. If I don't focus on it, then my youki naturally hums at full strength." he explained, relaxing his hold and allowing his aura to widen. Curious, he tilted his head and asked, "Can you mask your reiki?"

"I…don't know. I've never tried." Blushing, Kagome admitted, "I didn't really receive full miko training. Even though I grew up on a shrine, my parents and grandfather don't really have that much spiritual power, so I didn't have 24/7 training like most next generations of spiritual families get. They were definitely in the _know_, still considered spiritualists though they're weaker than most, and so when I started talking about what I saw as a small child it was immediately explained to me. I grew up knowing what I was and what youkai are, but what my parents could teach me about my powers themselves was fairly limited. My grandfather found a nice old miko named Kaede that helped me hone my powers over the years, like a tutor that would come to the house a few times a week, so that was good, but even what she knew and could teach me was limited compared to the lessons I would have received had I gone to the sect's secret school for the 'gifted'. But seeing the way my parents had always lived fairly normal lives without more direct involvement with the sect, I didn't want to get further involved with them, either. When the higher ups came by to talk to me, I told 'em straight out that that wasn't the life for me, learning to fight, becoming a soldier. They told me that as a citizen of Japan it was my duty to my people, that people with powers as strong as mine were becoming rarer and I was given the gift by the kami for that specific purpose, and that even if I remained a civilian, should war theoretically break out I would be honor bound to help mankind as one of the kami's chosen warriors."

"So you moved to America?"

She crinkled her nose again. "Well if you say it _that _way then it does sound like I ran away, but the truth is I'd actually wanted to go to school in America since I was a kid. I just hadn't let the sect ruin my plans, is all. I'm still a citizen of Japan…though I'm an American citizen too, now. I didn't want them to be able to deport me, but if the shit really hit the fan I'm sure I'd probably go running back. I'd want to protect my family, at the very least."

He nodded his understanding. "So what are you going to school for?"

"Pediatrician."

"Like kids, huh?"

"I love children. What about you?"

"Can't stand the bastards."

She laughed despite herself. "Glad to see we have so much in common."

"Why? Hoping we'd be eHarmony matches?" he teased.

"Compatibility is overrated," she waved off. "The old saying was always 'Opposites attract', you know."

He snorted. "Can't get much more opposite than us. So are you saying you're interested?"

_She _snorted. "I don't know where my head's at. I must be delirious from hunger."

Chuckling a bit he said, "All right, all right. Sheesh."

He smiled to himself as the sound of her gentle laughter drifted behind him as he made his way to the shoreline.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"What are you doing?" he laughed, staring the miko up and down as she knelt on the ground with a mango brutally ripped open in her hands, juice running down her arms.

Having gone for a walk shortly after breakfast to both stretch her legs and avoid going stir crazy, she'd made note of the various fruit trees that were around them. A little while later Inuyasha had decided to go scout out where more dead trees were located, not that they needed more firewood just yet, but it was definitely better to be prepared by knowing in advance where more usable wood could be found. Telling him to have fun and promising that she wouldn't get herself lost in his absence, she'd kept her word to stay near the vicinity of their campsite, collecting more leaves that she planned on tying together to create another 'blanket' they could lay up in the branches like a tarp to shield them from possible rain. Having worked up a bit of an appetite and remembering where the nearest mango tree was located, Kagome had decided to give herself a quick lunch break, and that was how Inuyasha had found her upon his return.

She shot him a glare for his laughter.

"I'm eating a mango. What does it look like?"

"Like you're finger painting with it." he snorted. "I didn't know you were such a messy eater when it came to fruit."

Smirking herself, Kagome questioned, "Do you know what's worse than finding a bug when you bite into a piece of fruit?"

He quirked his brow.

"Finding _half _a bug when you bite into a piece of fruit."

Laughing, Inuyasha said, "Okay, I'll give ya that one."

Walking up to the mango tree, he proceeded to pluck and sniff at the ripe fruits. "Clean, clean, bugs…" he tossed that one to the ground, "…clean, clean, bugs, bugs, bugs, clean…"

Handing Kagome a collection of bug-free mango, she quickly rose to her feet and held up the bottom edge of her blouse to cradle the fruits like a basket as she followed him back to camp. Setting down all but one of the mango, Kagome then proceeded to plop down by their fire, tossing in some more wood before ripping off a large section of peal of the mango she'd kept with her and taking a big bite out of it, instead of ripping out little pieces with her fingertips as she had previously been doing. It was a simple gesture, and one that Inuyasha wondered on whether or not the true significance of it had even dawned on her. Theoretically, he could have been lying, although those types of practical jokes had never been his style. But the fact that she so openly trusted him, even over something so trivial, really meant a lot to him.

With midday rolling around into afternoon, a few fluffy clouds rolling by with it, Kagome quickly got to work with fashioning their leaf awning. Using more of Inuyasha's hair to tie together several more of the large, 'elephant ear' type leaves that were growing all around, Kagome smiled to herself at a job well done when, with the hanyou's assistance, the finished tarp was securely fashioned overhead in the tree they had both chosen to call home for the remainder of their stay. Inuyasha didn't much relish in the idea of getting rained on, either, so he attached the awning to a few branches that were above the one he'd been using as a perch, with Kagome's bedding having already been placed close enough to the trunk on the ground down below that she would be out of the rain as well. A few more clouds drifted by throughout the remainder of the day, though Inuyasha didn't yet detect the scent of approaching rain on the breeze, but it was definitely better to be safe than sorry, so with the tarp's construction it was one less thing for them to worry about.

With that project taken care of, the rest of the evening was rather boring, so they quickly decided to fill the silence with a few random stories about their lives. Inuyasha couldn't help laughing as Kagome shared with him some early childhood memories of she and her brother, and when it was his turn, he shared with her some of the troubles he'd gotten himself into when he always used to run off into the forest as a kid, and how many times he'd come face to face with death before his brother had swooped in to _reluctantly _save him.

"I'm sure your brother doesn't hate you as much as you think he does."

Inuyasha snorted. "Trust me, he _despises _the fact that 'his' father sired a half-human mongrel." Sighing, he couldn't stop a small half-smile from forming on his lips as he added, "Although I do tease the bastard that the reason he never killed me back when he'd had the chance was 'cause he secretly loves me." Laughing a bit, the hanyou relented, "He says he 'tolerates' my existence, and coming from him that practically _is _a confession of brotherly love."

Kagome would've been inclined to feel sympathetic towards him if it weren't for the way he was laughing and brushing it off, indicating that for him it was all water under the bridge. She supposed she could understand, considering how she knew most humans felt about hanyou…or at least the humans who knew about youkai. She supposed Inuyasha's brother probably hadn't appreciated it very much when their father had up and gotten a human woman pregnant, but that could hardly be blamed on Inuyasha himself. It wasn't anybody's fault that they were born; he wasn't to blame for being a hanyou and suddenly, Kagome found herself sympathizing with him anyway, despite his casual demeanor regarding the whole thing.

As their second day on the island came to a close, Kagome didn't catch the way Inuyasha glanced up into the late evening sky, frowning at the thin sliver of a crescent moon poking through the treetops. Relieving herself behind some bushes, Kagome grumbled to herself about their lack of _certain _supplies as she took her shoes back off before settling herself into her bedding for the night. It was still kind of early, but she figured she might as well go to sleep since there wasn't anything else to do. Besides, not having slept as well as she'd thought she would the night before meant that she was actually kind of tired. She was pretty sure she'd be able to fall asleep pretty fast

Following suit, Inuyasha made sure that their fire was nice and large before carving a second notch in the trunk of their tree, jumping up onto his branch afterwards with a softly murmured "Goodnight." that his companion returned.

Tomorrow night was the new moon. His meeting at the company wasn't until the day after tomorrow, so supposing Sesshoumaru wasn't going to find out about his absence until he missed his appointment, then that meant they definitely weren't going to get rescued tomorrow…which meant they'd still be stuck together on the island come tomorrow night.

_Ah, crap_… he thought, sighing. _Oh well, nothin' I can do about it_…


	3. New moon, now I'm no longer alone…

Chapter 3 – New moon, now I'm no longer alone…

.

.

Spared a repeat of her nightmare, Kagome awoke with the singing birds at dawn feeling much more refreshed that time around. Of course, Inuyasha was already wide awake, and had been for at least a couple of hours, though he'd stayed silent in his branch above to allow Kagome to sleep in for however long her body planned on doing so. She could have probably slept even longer if it weren't for the birds waking her up, but she still appreciated the fact that Inuyasha himself had kept still and silent in order to let her sleep. After a quick round of their usual barbs back and forth he took off towards the ocean with a light chuckle in his throat, and about an hour after waking up breakfast was served when she pulled their roasted fish off the fire.

With nothing else in need of construction shelter wise, Kagome decided to initially occupy herself by putting their cell phones back together to see if either one of them was in working order. Fortunately both phones had been turned off at the time of being dunked, which had apparently prevented them from getting fried since they both turned back on, though _un_fortunately Inuyasha had regular service via cell towers as did she, so neither one of them could make a call from their present location. Turning their phones back off, she sighed, now officially bored. Sure, she had video games on her phone, but she didn't want to drain the batter, not to mention risk possibly damaging something in her phone on the off chance it wasn't really 100% dry on the inside yet. But that didn't stop her from wishing she had a deck of playing cards or something else non-digital she could use to help ease her boredom.

"There's nothing to do…" she muttered more to herself, her words quiet enough to have probably been missed by anyone with _mortal_ hearing.

Glancing up into Inuyasha's tree after a moment, she was surprised by the way the hanyou was just staring off into space, a clearly troubled look in his eyes almost as if he was dreading something unavoidable.

"What's the matter?" she teased after a moment, hoping to lighten the mood. "I thought for sure you'd be all over that one. You drop your spontaneous quips in the ocean when you went fishing this morning?"

"Huh…?" he muttered, turning to glance her way distractedly. "Oh, uh…I'll give ya somethin' to do…" he chimed in way off cue, his heart clearly not in it.

Face serious, Kagome put her shoes back on then stood and approached his tree, reaching up and grabbing a hold of a lower branch and climbing herself up into the tree a ways in order to get closer to her companion. His eyes widened a bit in what looked like a combination of surprise and concern, the thought of his concern touching her heart if he feared she might fall, though she used to climb trees all the time as a kid and was pretty sure she knew what she was doing. Unable to make it to the branch he was sitting on she stopped on a branch only a couple of feet lower and about three feet over, enabling her to _almost _meet Inuyasha face to face. If she stood up on her branch and jumped she could probably grab a hold of his, but she wasn't _that _reckless.

"Okay, what gives?"

"I don't know what you mean." he answered defiantly, knowing he'd been busted.

"It's okay…you can talk to me. I promise I won't make fun of whatever you're worried about. What's wrong?"

She had been fully expecting him to put up more of a fight, to either change the subject completely and become his cocky self again or tell her seriously that it was either none of her business or at least that there was nothing she could do about it…whatever _it _was. She was _not _expecting the way Inuyasha merely sighed in defeat before standing up and hopping down to land on her branch, which drooped under the added weight, wrapping his arms around her and launching them both back up to the larger, more sturdy branch that could easily hold the both of them, as he settled himself back down against the trunk with Kagome in his lap. The entire maneuver took less than five seconds.

Face as red as a tomato, the miko was frozen stiff, too afraid to move for a whole variety of different reasons that included everything from falling out of the tree to finding out first hand whether or not Inuyasha had truly been affected by the cold of the ocean two mornings prior. If his plan had been to distract her from her line of questioning, mission accomplished. She was just about to squeak out a pitiful request for him to take them both back down to the ground when his voice suddenly pulled her from her own worries and had her focusing once again on what was troubling her companion.

"How much do you know about hanyou?" he asked her softly, causing her to ignore the sensation of being held flush against his body as she furrowed her brow and truly gave the question some thought.

"I'm not sure…the usual, I guess?" she answered hesitantly. "I mean, Kaede-sensei had many books about youkai, and part of my studies was learning about all of the different species, how non-animal youkai can be formed or created, and what their abilities are. I know hanyou are half human, that they are conceived, born, and grow up at a fairly human rate until adolescence when the full extent of their youkai powers kick in at the onset of adulthood to slow their aging and increase the strength of whatever other abilities they might have already possessed."

Feeling a little uncomfortable talking about his species in such a detached manner, she pulled back a bit in order to meet his eyes and stopped speaking about his kind in the third person.

"I know that things like your ears are a result of you actually being half human, half dog, since even though I'm sure your father had been in his human form while with your mother, an animal-youkai's humanoid form is a type of glamour, and their animal form is their true form, so you got his canine DNA. I know that unlike a full-blooded youkai, you can't change the shape of your body, either turning into a dog or a ball of energy. Full-youkai are energy beings, but being half human you're corporeal and that's why you had to take an airplane in order to fly to America."

He merely nodded at her, encouraging her to continue.

"What else?" he asked.

Furrowing her brow for a moment she thought about it a little harder then suddenly gasped, her eyes going wide.

"Oh, kami…are you talking about your…er…_human _time?" she all but whispered, as if there was anyone else around that could possibly overhear her.

He visibly relaxed.

"So…you do know…" he sighed, clearly relieved. He hadn't wanted to have to explain it to her.

"Kaede-sensei didn't know much on the subject, such as the science behind why and how it happens, but yes, it was in my studies that hanyou bodies sometimes shift the balance within themselves. That sometimes their…uh, your…youkai blood apparently needs to sleep, turning you temporarily human."

Thinking back on her lessons for a moment, she added, "I also read that a hanyou's youkai blood can override their human blood, not transforming the shape of their body but otherwise basically turning them full-youkai, though when that happens they are usually consumed by madness because they're not used to dealing with the full strength of their youki and it overpowers them. Is that true?"

He was a little caught off guard by the casual way in which she'd asked the question, but seeing the genuine curiosity in her eyes he decided to be upfront about it.

"Yes, that's true, but you don't gotta worry about me going all Mr. Hyde on your ass. My youkai blood only rises to the surface on its own when my life's in immediate danger and I'll die without the added power boost. I've got a better handle on it these days than I used to, and I can usually calm myself down enough to snap out of it if I start to transform against my will, and I can also bring on a semi-transformation if the situation calls for it while retaining my sanity. The first time it happened to me, after I got attacked by a group of oni during one of my excursions from the castle during my youth, it caught everyone by surprise and Oyaji had to overpower me and knock me out in order to change me back. After that, he immediately made a seal for my blood from one of his fangs in the form of a katana, which can either prevent or reverse my transformations. It's bad enough that I'm half human, but if word had spread that the second son of the Inu no Taisho was a mad man who couldn't even control his own blood it would've been a disgrace worthy of seppuku, so I immediately underwent training, both with my sword as a weapon, and with my own youkai blood, until I was a master of both. This was back in the day so it was still acceptable to walk around town with a sword on your hip. These days, though I usually still like to have Tetsusaiga with me whenever possible, my concealment charm makes it invisible so I won't cause a media stir."

She giggled a bit at the way he quirked his lip up at that statement.

"Of course, I don't have it with me _now_. It's only invisible when in direct contact with my body, and it'd be kind of hard to sit down in an airplane seat with a sword through my belt. It would've been too much of a hassle to try to get clearance for it on the plane in my luggage so I just left it at home, thank the gods, otherwise I'd have to go deep sea diving to retrieve it. But like I said, you don't gotta worry about me going nuts on you. Not unless you plan on beating me to a pulp." he finished with a wink that had her giggling again.

"Well, _that's _good, not that I was worried." she answered with a wink of her own. "But as for your human time…" she began hesitantly, letting her words trail off.

He hadn't thought she'd forgotten.

"Yeah…" he sighed, raising one of his hands to rub at the back of his head awkwardly. "That transformation is more outta my control. It happens on a monthly schedule and there ain't a damn thing I can do about it. Believe me, I've tried."

"So when does it start?" she asked knowingly. There was only one reason why he would've brought up such a subject in the first place.

"Tonight at sundown."

"How long does it last?"

"Just one night, thank the _gods_…I'll be hanyou again at dawn."

"So just one night a month?" she asked. "That's not too bad, then."

"Nah, that's true. It would happen more frequently if Oyaji hadn't been so powerful."

"I feel like I should probably know who your father was."

"If you were an active member of the spiritual sect, you'd know who _I _was."

"Well aren't you Mr. Important…" she teased. "But I get it, you're old, your father was ancient, your brother's a daiyoukai and you two are billionaires. I'm just a humble customer service representative struggling her way through medical school. Welcome to the American dream." she finished, sticking her tongue out at him.

He snorted.

"You're not a humble anything. Don't you dare try to pretend you aren't strong enough to turn me human right this instant if you wanted to. You might have turned your back on officially being a miko, but your aura is freakin' huge."

She merely turned her head, a light dusting of pink on her cheeks at the backhanded complement. Forgetting herself for a moment, Kagome settled herself against him slightly as a feeling of calm overtook her, a feeling that fled just as quickly when she suddenly noticed the way a certain something began pressing up against her thigh through his jeans. Squeaking in surprise, she jerked away from him so fast that she almost fell out of the tree before his laughter turned into a curse as he lunged forward to grab her just in time to stop her fall.

"Sheesh, woman. Is my body really so repulsive that you'd rather kill yourself?" he joked to soften the blow to his ego at her reaction, keeping both hands on her shoulders until he was sure she had her balance, as she straddled the branch, the length of her skirt enough to preserve her modesty as she sat facing him with both hands stretched forward on the branch before her, bracing herself.

"Not funny…" she muttered after a moment, her heart still pounding a mile a minute.

Releasing her shoulders, he shrugged, valiantly ignoring the heat he could feel on his own cheeks as he tried to shift his posture so that his impromptu erection wasn't quite as noticeable…not that she was looking, he noted, her eyes fixed on her hands.

"Not like I did it on purpose." he mumbled, his own embarrassment clear in his voice. "You should take it as a compliment."

She said nothing, and with the way her eyes were still fixated on her hands on the tree branch, she didn't see his growing smirk.

"Besides," he added smugly. "It's not like you're a virgin."

Her head snapped up, her eyes wide and immediately locking with his own.

"Y-you can smell that?"

He barked out a loud laugh.

"No!" he admitted, laughing even harder as her cheeks darkened to match the color of his t-shirt. "I really had no idea but figured statistics were on my side."

"Bastard…" she grumbled lightly, clearly more embarrassed than angry.

"Aww, come on, priestess, it's all in good fun."

"Call me 'priestess' one more time and I'll start calling you 'hanyou', got it?"

Taken aback by her tone, he looked her way with genuine surprise in his eyes.

"What's the matter? I didn't mean nothin' by it. It ain't supposed to be an offensive term."

Sighing, Kagome reluctantly explained, "I…used to get harassed a bit by the secret youkai at my high school. There were a few of them, and they'd formed a clique, one of the groups of 'popular' kids, ya know? They all picked on me because I was the _only _human with spiritual powers, at least at the time, and you know how high school kids are, so I even started getting picked on by the normal humans just because they wanted to fit in, having no idea why I was the verbal punching bag but not caring. I mean, kids will be kids, right? But the leader, Kouga, an ookami, in private he used to call me 'priestess' as a twisted pet name, and he _had _meant it as an offensive term, since he'd known I'd had no intention of leading that kind of a life. He turned being a miko into my species instead of a profession, but I couldn't help being born with my powers any more than you could help being born a hybrid. The really sad thing is that at one point in time I'd actually kind of liked Kouga, and I _thought _he'd liked me too. He'd asked me out on a date once and I'd agreed, and we'd had a really good time. But his father didn't approve of him seeing a 'miko' and betrothed him to a she-wolf from a neighboring clan. I don't know what his father did to him but he turned against me almost overnight, saying how he'd seen the light, how it never could have worked between us, even accusing me of never having been serious with him in the first place because I knew just as well as he did that 'youkai and miko don't mix', as he'd said. I mean, I'm sure growing up hanyou and in the Edo period your childhood sucked way worse than mine did, so I'm not trying to play a sympathy card or anything, but suffice it to say I don't much care for being called 'priestess' like that. My name's Kagome."

Inuyasha could do nothing but stare at her in silence as all that she'd said slowly sank in. He could certainly understand her dislike for the term after having it explained to him, and he silently vowed not to call her that any more, but that wasn't the primary reason for his continued silence. She…she had actually _dated _a _wolf-youkai? _Such a thing was completely unheard of! He wasn't surprised that Kouga's father had put a stop to it, but the fact that she had even been willing in the first place… Then he mentally cringed as he recalled his own thoughts about youkai and miko not mixing. It wasn't that they _couldn't_, he supposed, it was just that they _didn't_. While it was still frowned upon, even in that day and age, it wasn't as if it was forbidden for a youkai to get together with a human, generally speaking. They had to be very careful about who they let in on their secret because they couldn't risk a blabbermouth, and for the greater good a human who betrayed their trust would be _dealt _with, but while hanyou were still very rare they were actually a lot more common in that day and age than they used to be back when he was a child. Living in a world so thoroughly dominated by humans and having to deal with the mortals on a daily basis had lessened if not eliminated most youkai's prejudice against the species. Still, not _hating _humans was a far cry from actually wanting to _breed _with them…and whenever such a union did take place it was _never _with a human who had spiritual powers! It wasn't forbidden…but probably only because such a happenstance had never existed and therefore there had never been a need to make a law about it. He wasn't sure where the spiritual humans rested on the issue, but he imagined it couldn't be all that favorable. Still, there was at least _one _spiritual human who apparently didn't see the world quite so black and white. That thought brought a smile to his lips. If she had actually been willing to date a pureblood back in high school, then maybe she wouldn't be opposed to the idea of seeing him again, after all. Maybe the only one holding them back was him. He had some serious thinking to do.

"Kagome it is, then." he commented finally, a single fang popping out in a half smirk when Kagome smiled his way.

With his excitement back under control now that Kagome was no longer pressed up against him so intimately – kami she smelled good – he decided to take pity on the girl and help her down out of their tree before she really did fall and hurt herself. Realizing his intention as he reached for her a second time, Kagome didn't resist and allowed him to scoop her up in his arms, thankful beyond words when her feet touched solid ground.

Recalling her original exclamation of boredom, and deciding the poor girl had had enough embarrassment for one morning, Inuyasha decided to come up with something to kill at least a little time as he asked her suddenly, "I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel all icky. How'd you like to get washed up a bit?"

Her eyes immediately lit up and he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing again at her expression.

"A bath?" she asked excitedly. "I didn't want to hassle you about it, but I would _love _to be able to scrub some of the dirt away. I'm sure with your nose I probably reek, and I'm sorry, but since I agree with you I won't take offense at your not-so-subtle hint."

Inuyasha wanted to correct her, but he didn't think she would feel comfortable learning that, being half dog as he was, he had a very different perspective when it came to body odor and what smelled good or bad. He didn't think she reeked at all, and actually appreciated the more pungent quality of her natural fragrance, though of course that was only because she had a pleasing natural odor to begin with. It was all about body chemistry, and fortunately for his nose's sake her natural scent was something he could breathe in all day and never get tired of. Still, he was also half human, and he could _definitely _appreciate a human's desire for good hygiene. Especially given their current living conditions…or lack thereof.

"Eh, you're not that bad…" he finally decided upon, his playful wink leaving the statement open for interpretation on whether or not he was being sarcastic.

Making sure their fire had plenty of fuel to last for a little while on its own, he crouched down and waited for her to get into position. Kagome lamented not having a tiny travel shampoo in her purse, or any kind of soup for that matter, but she would make do. All she had in her 'emergency kit' for washing was a few towelettes and a small bottle of hand sanitizer that had thankfully stayed sealed while in the ocean. To wash her hands she'd been using the water from their drinking hole, just to physically rinse the dirt off, then to make sure her hands were actually clean enough to handle food she'd used her sanitizer…not that she planned on wasting the stuff on her entire body. Just rinsing the dirt and oil off her body and out of her hair would make a world of difference, and maybe she'd even tackle the challenge of untangling the raven nest on her head after getting it wet again.

Climbing up onto Inuyasha's back, she tried not to think about how odd it felt, or how strangely right it felt, to be clinging onto the man so intimately.

Once he was sure she was ready, Inuyasha took off, though they didn't travel all that far. He was fairly certain that she wouldn't want to bathe in the open ocean, even if there was nobody else around besides himself that would see her, so he stayed inland and took them to the nearest secondary freshwater pond. He was certain they wouldn't be on the island long enough for them to need more than one drinking hole, so they could take turns bathing in this one without worry over contaminating the water. Besides, even if they did end up needing more clean water, like if something somehow accidentally spoiled the one they were currently using, there were far more than just these two on the entire island.

Leaping through the trees, he somehow managed to resist his urge to tease the girl on his back by hoisting his hands up higher on her legs than they needed to be. Even though she had offered no protest or warning this time around, he had no doubt she would retaliate with the previously threatened ear flick or some other form of bodily harm if he dared overstep his bounds in that way. But the feel of her soft skin against his rough palms was so… He had to stop that line of thinking or he'd get hard again, and that would certainly make racing through the treetops more difficult. He didn't know why he was becoming so attracted to Kagome, although he speculated it was because he had never met another woman like her before, and if there was one thing he did know, it was that despite the outward persona he usually portrayed to the public of being a bit of a playboy, he was really more attracted to a woman's personality that her body. Granted, a rocking body was definitely a plus, but it wasn't the only thing that mattered in Inuyasha's book. Despite the types of women he usually ended up dating, he actually preferred beauty _and _brains, and so far in only a couple of days during the worst possible conditions Kagome had already proven to have an abundance of both. If they didn't get rescued soon he didn't know _what _he'd do…although a wicked little voice in the back of his mind told him he wouldn't mind finding out.

Arriving in the small clearing that contained a fairly decent sized fresh water pond, appropriate enough for bathing in, he slowly came to a stop, conscientious of not jostling the girl on his back too harshly as he came in for a landing.

"You can go first so that you don't have to worry about me funking up the water." he said as he sat her down on her feet.

Sighing, Kagome frowned and argued, "When are you going to get it through that thick canine skull of yours that I _don't _think of you any differently for your youkai blood?"

He smirked.

"Well, when you put it _that _way…" he laughed, causing her to blush as she realized what she'd just said. "But don't get your panties in a bunch, _Kagome_, I was just talkin' about my awesome manliness. But if you're going to bow out of the American custom of 'ladies first' then fine, I offered, but you're talkin' to a man born and raised in the Edo period, don't forget, so by all rights I _should _get the first bath."

Kagome wanted to argue against his chauvinistic attitude but bit her tongue, knowing he was right. She'd gotten a little spoiled living in America for the last five years…not that she really had an American family life she could compare to her old life in Tokyo considering she lived alone, but she watched enough 'reality' TV to know how most American women expected to be treated by their men. Which, in her opinion, explained why most of the women on those shows had relationship issues, but that was neither here nor there.

Deciding to throw Inuyasha a curve ball just for the hell of it, she bowed her head submissively, bending forward in a slight bow with her hands clasped politely in front. Switching back to Japanese, she said, "It pleases me that Inuyasha-sama should have the first bath."

Laughing the hardest so far since meeting the girl, Inuyasha reached up with a clawed finger to wipe a single tear from his eye as he threatened, "Keep acting like _that _and I'll have you wash me. It wouldn't be the first time I had a bathing attendant."

Lifting her head, amusement twinkling in her eyes, Kagome said, "Why am I not surprised?"

He merely chuckled again, before asking, "Rock, paper, scissors?"

She smirked. "You're on."

*Scissors*

*Paper*

"Damn."

Smirking triumphantly, Inuyasha feigned hurt feelings when Kagome jokingly accused him of cheating because of his lightening fast reflexes, but she truly had no intention of arguing with him over who got to bathe first. The whole thing had been his idea to begin with, after all. If it weren't for him she wouldn't be bathing at all.

"But seriously, though, you are _definitely _my senpai*, so go ahead." she assured him in that moment, having no desire to fight with him, especially over something so trivial.

She didn't move a muscle to turn and leave, though, and with humor never leaving his gaze, he stared her down, pretending to ignore the significance of her actually considering the two of them in the same class of beings. True, he was definitely _way _older than her, and definitely physically stronger, too, though magically stronger was open for debate, but a senpai was one's superior in the same field. He supposed that soldiers on either side of a war were still both soldiers, but somehow, he got the distinct impression she meant it a tad more personably than that.

"If you're going to watch then you'll have to return the favor." he warned with a seductive purr, reaching behind himself and pulling off his shirt from overhead, male stripper style.

Her eyes widened ever so slightly at the sight of all that delicious muscle, her memory quickly replaying what she already knew the _rest _of his body looked like sans clothing.

_Gah! What's wrong with me? _

Finally managing to snap herself out of it, Kagome whirled around and disappeared through the trees, the light sound of Inuyasha's amused chuckling doing nothing to cool the heat she felt on her cheeks as she put a safe distance between them.

Letting her go without another word, Inuyasha shook his head in amusement as he removed his jeans before lowering himself into the cool but not too cold water. Since he took regular dunks in the ocean to catch their fish he didn't really even need a bath, although he'd figured that Kagome would appreciate the opportunity to get clean. Still, might as well try to wash some of the salt and grit out of his hair. Gulping in a deep breath he closed his eyes and leaned backward, fully submerging himself under the water. Reaching up he ran his claws through his hair a bit, careful of his ears, which were completely plugged and starting to throb in time with his pulse, though he was used to that kind of sensation by that point with the amount of swimming he used to do. He wouldn't get an ear infection. His youkai blood wouldn't allow it.

Inuyasha stayed under for around five minutes or so, nowhere near the full length of time that he could hold his breath if need be. Taking refuge in the moment of solitude, he thought about his miko companion and all that he'd learned about her…and how much he admittedly still _didn't _know. He was still having a time trying to wrap his mind around her brief tale about her high school days and the revelation that she'd once dated an ookami-youkai. She'd told the story so freakin' _normally _that one would think it could have been any other type of potential relationship gone sour, except for the whole 'youkai and miko don't mix' racism and him calling her _priestess_. But how had such a thing even come about? Why would Kouga have asked her out in the first place? Well…Inuyasha supposed he could give the wolf that one; _he _was certainly attracted to Kagome, and high school boys did not usually demonstrate common sense. Probably the fact that she was a forbidden fruit had made her all the more tempting, at least until his father had most likely _literally _beaten some sense into him. But why had Kagome said yes to that original date? And what had her _family _thought about it? Had they forbad the union too? She certainly hadn't mentioned anything of the sort in her retelling, although considering the way Kouga had started acting towards her it didn't really matter what her family's view had been, since the relationship clearly hadn't worked out. But had they forbad it and she'd been defying them? A high school girl's rebellious instinct to date whomever she wanted with or without permission? Had her family somehow, unfathomably, miraculously been _okay _with her dating an ookami? Or, perhaps, had she not even told them? Had she merely said that she had a date and they'd never met the boy, and Kagome had never revealed that one _tiny little_ detail? There were so many variables his head was spinning, and not from holding his breath for too long, although Inuyasha did resurface in that moment, deciding that he'd stalled long enough and that the miko of his thoughts deserved to have her own bath time.

Climbing out of the water and shaking himself mostly dry, making sure to get all of the water out of his ears, he pulled his jeans back on and slung his t-shirt over his shoulder, unable to resist teasing Kagome a tiny bit as he couldn't have missed the way she'd been staring at his bare chest even if he'd been blind and in a coma.

Finding the miko sitting behind the trees not all that far away, doodling in the dirt with a twig, he had no fear of inadvertently startling the girl and spoke up at a normal level, stating "Okay, your turn." as she turned around to greet him.

Kagome, who had sensed his approach and had already been in the process of turning around to look his way as his words began leaving his lips, found herself suddenly stunned speechless for a moment as she once again lost herself in just how fucking sexy he truly was. Miko though she may be, she wasn't a prude, and she could most definitely appreciate the chiseled perfection standing before her. Inuyasha knew it, too, though at the moment Kagome couldn't be bothered by the smug look on his face. She was too busy imagining what it would feel like to run her hands all over that flawless body of his.

It took her a moment to realize that the smooth, glistening plains of his chest were completely hairless, and…come to think of it…there still wasn't even the slightest trace of a 5 o'clock shadow on his face, either.

_Must be an inu-youkai thing_… she realized, figuring that he must just be naturally hairless in some places, lucky bastard. Of course, she knew of at least _one _location on his body that grew hair besides his head.

_Mmm…no! Bad Kagome! _she mentally scolded herself.

It was around that time that the soft sound of male chuckling pulled her out of her revere to realize with a growing feeling of embarrassment that she'd been caught ogling him yet again. But refusing to give him the satisfaction of teasing her for her attraction as if she were a silly schoolgirl with a crush on her teacher, Kagome steeled her nerves in that moment, her eyes sparkling with challenge as he continued to laugh.

"Like what you see?" he asked her knowingly.

Replying as casually as she could, Kagome shrugged her shoulders before commenting, "I'm just jealous. I noticed you apparently don't need to shave, and I'm starting to get all stubbly."

"Ooo…" he sing-songed. "Do tell. Where?" he teased.

It was her turn to smirk.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

He grinned lecherously, the look in his eyes easily translating the thought, _Yes, yes I would_.

Shaking her head in amusement, instead of getting embarrassed, for once she retained her bravado, as she rose to her feet and dusted herself off a bit before slinking past him to make her way toward the pool.

"Be a good boy, now." she cooed. "No peaking."

"Aww, you're no fun." he grumbled playfully, pretending to be disappointed.

She quirked her brow at him, her look almost a challenge, and he gulped on reflex at what the look in her eyes could possibly mean.

"On the contrary, I'm more fun than you can probably imagine."

He smirked again at that, finding her sudden bravado a delightful surprise.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that…" he countered, his tone disbelieving. "I've got a pretty big imagination."

One side of her mouth quirked up as she scanned her eyes noticeably lower than his bare chest.

"Among other things." she purred, mentally removing his jeans yet again.

He should've been able to take her words as a compliment, to smirk knowingly while teasing her about wanting to see and/or feel those certain 'other things' a second time, since she'd had the pleasure one time already. She would then probably take his keyword 'pleasure' and run with it, causing him to step up his game even more so.

That's what _should _have happened, but for some reason, Inuyasha lost his bravado at her words, and with a distinct tinting of pink on his cheeks, he could do nothing but mutter an embarrassed "K-keh…" while she smirked in triumph before turning back around to finish her trek to the pond.

_Damn…Kagome 2, Inuyasha 1_… he mentally tallied, kicking himself for turning into a stuttering fool all of a sudden.

What was it about Kagome that made him lose himself so easily? Being a confident flirt was more than just a mask he projected to protect himself, but at the same time, it _was_ more or less the persona he portrayed as his public image for the sake of keeping up appearances. His sense of humor was genuine, his perverted, sexual thoughts truly his own, but even he could admit that there was a time and a place to be serious, and although he'd never found such a time or place while in the company of any of his previous lady friends, there was just something about Kagome that made him want to drop the routine. She was just so damn _real _that he couldn't help becoming real himself in her presence. His wit had never failed him so many times in a three-day period before, and considering how his emotions were already a jumbled mess, he was _not _looking forward to sunset.

As Kagome made her way to the small freshwater pond and began unfastening the buttons on her blouse, her thoughts were running along similar lines. Not about the upcoming moonless night, but about Inuyasha's emotions in general. She had been fully expecting another quick retort to her latest comment and she was actually a little surprised at her apparent ability to embarrass him so easily. She had been starting to question whether or not he was truly _capable _of being embarrassed, but apparently, she had been right after all…all that confident, flirty, perverted nonsense, it wasn't really the _real _him. Oh, you couldn't fake that kind of attitude if you were secretly a puritan, it would go against your very nature and disgust you, so she didn't think he was being 'fake' with her, per se, he was just cranking up the volume on his inner comedian, not that she couldn't relate. You simply _couldn't _flirt with such confidence if that type of behavior honestly disturbed or offended you, and she certainly hoped he had connected those same dots because he certainly wasn't the only one who'd turned up the flirt-o-meter on occasion since landing on that island. Just because she didn't have a tendency to go there automatically didn't mean she couldn't hold her own when push came to shove.

_A lady just knows that there's a time and a place…_

Although, if you couldn't openly flirt with the drop dead gorgeous sex-god who'd just saved your life and who had already been openly flirting with you, whom you'd already seen naked and who probably wanted to see you naked as well, then who _could _you flirt with?

_There's a time and a place all right_… she thought as she dropped the rest of her clothing and got into the water. _And that place is here and that time is right now_…

He had been right, of course; she was not a virgin. Far from it, actually, though she wasn't a _whore_. In her twenty-five years on Earth she'd only had two sexual partners, both of whom had been her steady boyfriend at the time, but while she had been in her relationship with each man their encounters had been…fairly numerous. Especially her second boyfriend whom she'd met after moving to California, a Caucasian man with a fetish for all things Japanese. She'd allowed herself to get into it for a while, even going so far as to dress up as a few different anime characters during some role play, and she'd even helped the man with his endeavor to learn Japanese, but there hadn't really been a solid foundation holding them up relationship wise. After the newness had faded and he'd realized she was actually a real person with her own goals in life and not just a PersaCom sent to him to grant his every sexual fantasy their relationship had fizzled out, but she didn't regret the experience.

Her high school boyfriend, Hojo, had been the complete opposite, treating her kindly and with obvious love and devotion, though he'd turned out to be a little _too _traditional in certain aspects for her taste. He had been post-Kouga, and one of the few people who hadn't bought into all the gossip that always traveled around the rumor mill. Despite most of the popular kids always picking on her Hojo had been sweet, and had been one of the few things that had made finishing high school bearable. Their relationship hadn't worked out when he hadn't supported her desire to go to medical school…not overseas…but _at all_. She might have considered canceling her plans of moving to America if he'd turned out to be the man of her dreams, but he'd wanted her as a quiet, stay at home wife, and that had most certainly clashed with her plan of becoming a doctor. Plus there was the issue of her having to hide what she was from the man who was what the spiritualists called a 'normie'…meaning he had no spiritual powers whatsoever and was completely in the dark regarding the truth about youkai, and she had not been at liberty to change that. It had certainly been frustrating trying to deal with a boyfriend who treated her like a delicate flower who was too sensitive to face the harsh truths of what he _considered _reality, while at the same time constantly turning down requests to join a secret academy and learn how to fight and kill just on the off chance there was ever a disturbance in the peace, and while his refusal to let her go to medical school had ultimately been the deal breaker Kagome was fairly sure it never could have worked out in the long run anyway with her having to keep such a giant secret between them.

That certainly wouldn't be an issue with the silver-haired man waiting for her back in the trees. Not only did he know what she was, but _she _knew what _he _was, and Kagome could only imagine that Inuyasha had similar issues with regard to having to hide himself from the general public. Granted, she had absolutely no idea what his relationship status currently was, but she imagined he had to be single or the subject of a wife or girlfriend would've surely come up at some point, not to mention she hoped that he wouldn't be quite so flirtatious were he truly off the market. That didn't reveal how often he dated, of course, or how _seriously _he dated, but she knew that a genuine relationship would be difficult for him considering his mixed status. Not only did he have to keep what he was a secret from all the humans not in the know, but he probably couldn't even date a female youkai all that easily because while she would be in on the secret, she probably wouldn't want anything to do with a man who was half human. The fact that he was a hanyou didn't bother her at all, though, and the fact that he had regular business in her hometown wasn't so easily forgotten. She didn't think he would take her seriously if she actually dared voicing the possibility of them going out on a date at some point in the future, though. Youkai and miko differences aside, he was a freakin' _billionaire_, and that wasn't a fact so easily forgotten, either. She would hate for him to think she was only interested in him for his money, which couldn't be farther from the truth, though she did worry that she wasn't up to par with the kinds of women he would probably be interested in because of his status. He probably couldn't wait to be rid of her. Still, fate had thrust them together, that much was certain. Whether or not it was solely to save her life was yet to be seen, she supposed. Had he been brought into her life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime? She thought back to that old e-mail chain… Of course, maybe she was thinking about it the wrong way. _Had _he been brought into her life…or was it possible that _she _had been the one brought into _his?_

_I think I've seen one too many chick flicks…_ she decided after a moment, mentally snorting as she leaned back and dunked her head, holding her breath as she did her best to scrub the oil and dirt out of her hair.

As she laid there, vulnerable and exposed in only about three feet of perfectly see-through water with her eyes closed, she couldn't decide if she was relieved or disappointed when the feel of Inuyasha's aura didn't change, meaning he was honestly keeping his distance and not trying to sneak a peak. She supposed it was possible he was very gradually tightening his aura around himself while closing the distance between them so that he could get closer without it feeling as if his aura had increased in strength, but something told her that despite all his playfulness he was actually an honorable man who would never do such a thing against her will. Kagome wondered briefly if she should reward him by washing her bra and blouse, thus making them see through again. Her clothing definitely _needed _to be washed, especially her underwear. The transparent properties of white fabric when wet was merely an unfortunate and unavoidable side effect. Smirking to herself, Kagome made her decision, sitting up and reaching for her underclothes to bring into the water with her. Her skirt and blouse she could get away with not washing, she didn't want to be dripping wet for the rest of the day, but her bra and panties needed to have a light scrubbing. Of course, her wet bra would undoubtedly end up soaking through her blouse at least to some degree, but shrugging to herself jokingly she figured, watcha gonna do?

All playfulness aside, it was definitely a relief to feel clean again, as she climbed out of the water and stepped into her shoes before anything else to avoid getting a bunch of dirt on the bottom of her feet, although the area was fairly grassy. Ringing out her panties the best she could she slipped the damp fabric up her legs before struggling with fastening her bra. It was always a pain in the ass to put a bra on with wet skin, and the bra being wet itself was certainly not helping, but she managed it after a moment and then reached for her blouse and skirt.

Making her way back to Inuyasha, who was right where she'd left him lounging on the branch of a tree, she smiled knowingly as he raised an eyebrow at her appearance, her blouse already totally see-through with her dark tan nipples exposed once again.

"Thought you said I wouldn't get another look." he teased, knowing she had obviously done it on purpose.

"Don't flatter yourself." she denied with a smile, stating, "My underclothes were dirty and I wanted to wash them. Who gave you permission to look?"

Crossing her arms, she effectively showcased her chest, lifting her breasts even higher.

"You haven't told me _not _to look." he pointed out, still openly ogling her.

"And what would be the point in that since you've already seen me anyway?"

"Well by that logic I should just get naked then." he countered, clearly trying to call her bluff.

She merely quirked a brow at him, replying, "Go ahead, I won't stop you."

Now who was calling whose bluff?

Refusing to be outdone and needing to make up for his earlier fluster, Inuyasha kept his façade playful as he mentally braced himself before yanking his shirt back off once more. Seeing the way Kagome's expression didn't change, as she merely stood there with her brow quirked as if silently daring him to continue, he mentally counted to three before reaching for the button on his jeans. Undoing the zipper much slower than necessary, he was waiting for her voice to stop him, but it never came, and he learned in that moment that he never wanted to engage her in a game of chicken. Still, the idea of being naked in her presence didn't really bother him at face value. He honestly didn't have a problem with nudity, though for some unexplainable reason, he did feel more vulnerable with her than he'd ever felt with another woman before, as if he needed to know she approved of what she saw. But he had all the evidence of that he needed from the way Kagome had been staring at him shirtless and so he made good on his threat in that moment, dropping his jeans.

Watching her face very carefully, she _definitely _approved of what she saw.

He smirked.

_Didn't think I'd go through with it, did ya Ka-go-me…?_ he mentally chuckled.

Now that he knew she wasn't disgusted by him his confidence was back with a vengeance.

"Okay, well, come on, we better get back." he said then as casually as he could muster, quickly handing her his shirt and jeans which she took from his outstretched hands on reflex before she could think about what she was doing. He then turned his back to her, exposing his exquisite ass, before crouching down in an all-too-familiar pose, thankful that she couldn't see his shit-eating grin from that angle.

Her eyes widened in panic.

_Oh no…no way no how!_

"Okay, you win!" she nearly shouted, throwing his clothes at him as she whirled around to let him get dressed in whatever semblance of privacy there was to be had by that point.

Laughing, he added another notch under his own name on his mental tally before tugging his clothes back on.

_Totally worth it…_

There was no way to miss the scent of arousal that was coming off of the miko all of a sudden. Her panties were damp from more than just the pond water, and whatever tiny insecurities had started to bubble up in his mind in the face of his uncertainty regarding how attractive she found him were instantly squashed. Running back to camp once she finally agreed to climb on his back, her hard nipples pressing into his back making him bite back a moan as something of his started to harden as well, Inuyasha distracted himself from his own attraction to the miko by trying to psychoanalyze his _emotional _reaction to her. He supposed, if he were to be truly honest with himself, that while he knew that hordes of women found him attractive wherever he went, it was only his human side that they were seeing. While his concealment charm didn't really project a fake, made up image, considering he _did _turn human on occasion and therefore the spell was designed to actually reflect his true appearance in his human form, he was sure most of the girls he'd slept with over the years would have shrieked in fear if they'd known he was half monster. The fact that Kagome could see the real him, and he didn't mean emotionally but literally…the fact that the woman could see his white hair and freakin' dog-ears…that was more than enough to make him a little self-conscious with regard to what she thought about him.

He couldn't really vouch for the common view among the spiritual humans since he didn't associate with their kind, but among full-blooded youkai the general consensus when it came to hanyou was disgust. But Kagome was clearly not disgusted by him, which was the final proof he needed to know that there was legitimately not a single drop of prejudice in her entire body. The reason she had told Kouga yes when he'd asked for a date had been because she'd _liked _him, as simple as that sounded. Her family's views were yet to be seen, though he imagined they couldn't be too racist because somebody as pure hearted as Kagome did not usually emerge from an environment of hate, but ultimately it was none of their business who she chose to be with at that point in her life, anyway. She was an adult, and she didn't even live in the same country any more. The fact that she lived in LA, where he had regular business, had not gone unnoticed, and that she would actually initiate such an intimate round of teasing was a surprise, but a pleasant one. He was seriously starting to reconsider his own philosophy when it came to youkai and miko 'not mixing'. Kagome almost seemed too good to be true, and maybe she was and it wouldn't work out, but he'd be willing to consider being with a miko to find out. The pros definitely outweighed the cons. Actually, as he thought about it, there really _weren't _any cons except for the stigma of going against society, but since when had he given a fuck what anybody else thought?

Arriving back at camp, Inuyasha built their fire back up silently, unsure what to say to the girl he no longer though of as a _miko _but merely a woman.

Kagome initially occupied herself while he tended to their fire by working out the tangles in her hair with her pocket comb. After that task was finished, she picked up and began examining the surface of one of her mangos for bug bites, before deciding after a moment that she could use the fruit to break the ice as she approached where Inuyasha crouched by their fire.

"Can you…check this again for me? That it's still clean?"

Offering her a soft, genuine smile that was void of any lecherous undertones, Inuyasha took the mango from her hand and gave it a thorough once over with his nose.

"Still clean." he assured her after a moment, his smile increasing by the way she nodded her thanks before once again showing her trust in him by biting deeply into the fleshy fruit after pealing back a section of skin.

Late morning passed over into early afternoon in relative silence, but as afternoon slowly made its way into evening the pair began talking casually about his pending human night.

"Don't feel too bad." she joked, hoping to lighten his mood. "You're not the _only _one who suffers from a 'time of the month', ya know."

Smirking, he commented playfully, "It's the same only opposite. I turn human, while hordes of human women everywhere turn into demons."

Chuckling a bit as his companion shook her head in amusement, he got serious for a moment and asked her, "Do we gotta worry about your 'time' coming up? I know maybe it ain't none of my business, but it didn't look like you had enough of the necessary supplies to last the duration. We'd need to think of something. I could cut up my pant legs to make rags, I suppose. Heh, maybe that's why in movies the guys stranded on the islands always have the bottom halves of their pants tore up."

Instead of getting embarrassed, she smiled warmly at his genuine concern, chuckling a bit at his joke because it was true that the bottom of pant legs getting torn up beyond capri length was a stereotype of being stranded for too long in the movies.

"No need to ruin your favorite jeans." she assured him. "I won't have to worry about that for another week and a half or so, so hopefully it won't be an issue, though I appreciate the concern." she answered honestly.

"Keh, don't get used to it." he teased. "My human emotions just turn me into a bit of a pansy."

Chuckling a bit at those words, Kagome then got serious again as she asked, "Does it hurt?" She was relieved to learn at his reassurance that the physical aspect of his monthly transformation was not painful.

Commenting on his earlier statement of her being powerful enough to purify him into his human form, Kagome picked his brain for a little while on what he understood of the science behind everything, considering he'd had quite a few more years studying up on the subject than she had. She learned that he actually knew first hand that exposure to seemingly leather levels of purifying energy would only turn him human temporarily because it'd actually happened to him once before, when, during a battle with a rogue spiritualist who'd been on a crusade to rid the world of all youkai despite their peace treaty, he had been tossed into a purifying barrier, only to emerge physically unharmed on the other side as a human. Thanks to his samurai level of training with a sword, and the fact that the rogue monk had had no real battle knowledge of his own, having always relied on his spiritual powers, Inuyasha, with Tetsusaiga in its dormant form, had still been victorious in that battle.

There was a weird sort of truce between the spiritualists and youkai in that day and age that thanks to her limited amount of training Kagome _was _aware of, that together, their shared goal, the biggest concern, was protecting the unawares global human population. If a youkai went rogue and started to cause trouble the spiritualists were not only within their rights to take him out, but it was actually their duty to do so, and the treaty dictated that such an action wouldn't trigger a war between the races. But vise versa, the opposite was also true, and if a person of spiritual ability decided to rebel against his teachers and deliberately seek out to destroy all youkai like a vigilante, the demonic community could retaliate without fear of it raising the ire of other spiritualists. Of course, that wasn't to say that the two sides couldn't or didn't take care of their own, when the situation allowed. If a rogue youkai were caught in time by other youkai he or she would be executed by their own people and that would be the end of it. Likewise the spiritual humans, while not so quick to deliver death sentences among their own kind, did have privately run jails where troublemakers were housed indefinitely. It was considered merciful since they knew that to allow the rogues free would ultimately mean their death at the hands of a youkai. It was also where they locked up 'normal' humans who had found out about youkai and couldn't be trusted to keep the secret. It was for the greater good, and the Emperor, who _was _in the know, as were the leaders of the other countries around the world, condoned the acts taken by the spiritually powerful humans who the few 'normies in the know' tended to think of as holy saviors of mankind.

Inuyasha was a little worried about how Kagome would react to learning that he had actually taken human life, but she was quick to brush off his concerns, agreeing that it had been self-defense not only directly for himself, but for his entire species. Just because she didn't want to personally have anything to do with being a warrior and taking lives didn't mean she couldn't understand how such things were necessary. She was curious, though, how exposure to such high levels of purification could prove to have only a temporary effect on him. Half human though he may be, and unable to be purified completely in the sense of disintegrating into ash, shouldn't such a jolt permanently turn him human, if the youkai side of himself had been purified?

Inuyasha shrugged, answering that he believed his youki had come back because the monk had simply not been powerful enough to turn him human permanently. His youkai side was _very _powerful, making him what his brother had once referred to as a 'dai-hanyou', since he wasn't just half youkai but half _daiyoukai_. Had he been a pureblood of daiyoukai status like his brother and father, that blast would most likely not have killed him, or possibly even injured him that seriously at all. Sesshoumaru was _ridiculously _powerful, he told Kagome, explaining how once, back in the day, the man had even caught a miko's arrow mid-flight and snapped it in half like a twig, when he'd personally witnessed that very same miko take out a horde of lesser, beastly youkai with those same arrows.

Of course, the beastly youkai of human mythology were extinct by that point in time, having eventually been killed off since they had been too stupid and hostile to tame. It was a _human's _world they lived in now, Inuyasha admitted, and the spiritualists were definitely the ones in charge. The youkai, though they had their own communities of sorts, had to answer to the spiritualists if they did anything considered out of line. Though it was a truth most youkai in that day and age liked to ignore, the fact of the matter was that they were only alive because the spiritualists _let _them live. If the youkai hadn't agreed to peace, then the monks and miko of the world would have continued to hunt them until there were none left. It was fortunate for the surviving youkai of that century that the ancestors of today's spiritual humans had craved peace and coexistence.

Back in the day, the alliance had started when a group of houshi and miko had confronted the more powerful and intelligent people-like youkai, asking for peace when they feared the alternative would be a never-ending war with countless deaths on both sides. The youkai who had been peaceful enough to agree to the cease-fire, as well as agree to the miko's demands that they stay out of the way of human development and that if they wanted to interact with mankind they had to do so under the guise of humanity so as to not stir fear into the hearts of everyone everywhere they went, were originally met with opposition from several other youkai who did not so easily agree to peace, but those war-hungry youkai were ultimately taken out of the picture. When the houshi and miko first announced their desire for peace, the youkai who rejected the offer and sought to wage war were dealt with in short order, surprisingly not only by the monks and priestesses, but in some cases also by the other youkai who had desired to prove to the spiritual humans that not all youkai thought alike. The treaty was officially formed once the number of peace-agreeing youkai outweighed the rebels who still wanted to rule the world. It stated that youkai of all species were free to live their lives as they wished, so long as they did so either far away from humans or pretending to _be _humans, and so long as they caused no harm to mankind.

Sesshoumaru, while Inuyasha would never call him _peaceful_, had kept an open mind regarding the whole situation, knowing it would ultimately be in the best interest for his people to cooperate with the spiritualists. Those who could not evolve became extinct; that was simply the way of life. Even he couldn't deny that humans were breeding like rabbits and would soon take over the world, so he'd had little choice but to adapt; less bloodshed equaled higher profit margins. Inuyasha also suspected that their father's fondness for humans had played a direct part in the daiyoukai's compliance. Their father was one of the youkai who had openly fought against the lower youkai refusing peace, which was one of the main reasons the peace movement had been successful in the first place, since none of the war-hungry youkai had been strong enough to defeat him…at least at first. Even though their father had died over two centuries ago, his name was still highly respected among the remaining youkai clans to that day. The Inu no Taisho had perished from wounds inflicted by a powerful dragon, a battle he'd lured far away into the wilderness to protect mankind. He had successfully slain the dragon, and had survived long enough to return home and ensure that his eldest son was ready and able to rule in his place as the new Inu no Taisho. Youkai were not immortal even though it often seemed that way and their father had already known that his time was limited. He would have eventually fallen from age alone; to die from battle had been a much more honorable death. His wounds had only proven fatal because of his age, but that had not lessened the significance of his sacrifice. In fact it had only increased it, because a sacrifice had been exactly what it'd been. Their father had known going in that he would most likely not survive the battle against Ryukotsusei, his only goal having been to take the dragon out with him, and he had succeeded. That dragon had been the greatest threat to the peace treaty and with him gone the Inu no Taisho had known that most other youkai would cower and fall in line.

Sesshoumaru had refused to let their father's death be in vein, and as the new Inu no Taisho his first order of business had been to publicly challenge any and all youkai who would oppose him. Let them come to him now if they were foolish enough to think that challenging him showed more bravery than stupidity. Very few youkai had proven suicidal enough to attempt challenging the young daiyoukai, though a few lingering nuisances did rise up on occasion and were quickly wiped away.

In that day and age there wasn't much, if any, residual hostility lingering between the youkai clans. Power was now determined by the almighty dollar, and Sesshoumaru was one of the most successful businessmen in all of Japan…and overseas, too, thanks to Inuyasha's insistence that they create a presence for themselves in America.

"Wow…" Kagome murmured in awe of the brief history lesson, realizing with a humbling sense of humility that she actually did know who Inuyasha's father was, after all. He had been _so _important in the original forming of the peace treaty between their peoples that his story had even made it into the human history books, or at least the secret _'true history' _books that were kept in the spiritualist libraries.

"I know you said your father was an ancient inu-youkai, but I hadn't realized he was _that _ancient inu-youkai."

Inuyasha was momentarily worried that Kagome would start acting weird around him, but her scent didn't change, as if she suddenly felt uncomfortable in his presence. Her eyes were sparkling with a new found respect, but he got the distinct impression that her opinion of him as a person hadn't really changed all that much. After all, to be as powerful as she was, the odds were good that Kagome was also descendent from one of the more important spiritual lines. Though she'd told him her family name he wasn't familiar with the Higurashi line immediately off the top of his head, but she _had _said that her family had been living at that shrine for several generations, dating back all the way to the Sengoku period. She'd also said that her family, while they'd always been in the know, hadn't really had _that _much spiritual power in the last few generations, which explained why they weren't more active members of the sect. Sometimes powers did start to wane with time, especially if spiritual humans married and had children with normies, but it was also true that on occasion a latent spark of power would reemerge itself in a new generation, which explained what had happened with Kagome.

With evening coming to a close, Inuyasha announced that he'd better go get their dinner while he still could before they ended up being forced to go hungry for the night. Kagome nodded her consent and thanks, keeping herself busy during his absence by writing down in the dirt a list of additional things she wanted to ask him. When he returned with their fish their conversation was put on hold for a moment as he prepared their meal for cooking, then once Kagome had the cleaned fish skewered and roasting over the fire she got back to her twenty-questions.

Surprisingly undisturbed by her sudden desire to know everything about him, Inuyasha was happy to share with her whatever she wanted to know. When she asked him rather bluntly what it was, exactly, that he and his brother actually _did_ for a living, he explained how their modern business had originally started from Sesshoumaru being a power head figure, and other clans wanting his support not financially, but in arms, to get what they wanted under threat of war that was supported by the Inu no Taisho if certain demands were not met. Since everybody feared that going into battle with Sesshoumaru meant certain death, it was a very successful business, since they never gave their alliance _that _easily and such partnerships always had to be earned. Sesshoumaru never did anything not worth his while and so the arrangements were always ultimately beneficial to the inu-youkai clan, and as the shift in power became more and more about how large somebody's bank account was instead of how many soldiers were under their command, the rules might have changed a bit, but the game ultimately stayed the same. They started backing other people's endeavors financially instead of with force, almost like a loan shark Inuyasha joked, though with much more long-term commitments. They didn't just dish out loans and expect to get paid back with interest. If Sesshoumaru were going to put his stamp of approval on something it had to actually _meet _with his qualifications, and as such he would take on partial responsibility of the project, though the person who'd approached them with the desire to be funded remained in control on the surface. That was the price they had to pay, guaranteed success of their business in exchange for Sesshoumaru being a part of it. Not surprisingly, they had plenty of takers. Especially back at the beginning of what one would think of as the modern era, where starting a business on your own without financial support was virtually impossible.

"Imagine like getting a loan at a bank to start a company, but you never fully pay off the loan and the bank owns a small part of your company forever." he explained.

In the modern-day world of stock markets, where companies actually opened themselves up to be owned in part by whomever could purchase the shares, they had their hands in just about every cookie jar that existed in Japan, owning little bits and pieces of major corporations like Yamaha, Sony and Hitachi, to Toyota and Mitsubishi, all the way down to the smallest companies still worthy enough to be included in the stock exchange. While most of the more successful businesses in Japan were not owned or run by youkai at all, Sesshoumaru had long ago adapted to the spiritualists' insistence of playing human in order to exist in modern-day society, and so all of the human businessmen of Japan recognized Sesshoumaru as one of their own, having no idea who the daiyoukai really was, aside from being one of the richest and most powerful men in all of Japan. If you wanted your business to be a success you got the Taisho Corporation, or TaiCorp, to fund you. The name brought with it instant recognition since people would take you seriously during your business' infancy, and TaiCorp would own as little as only 5% of your company, allowing you to call all the shots while they just sat back and watched their stocks rise in value. There were honestly very few largercorporations in Japan that they did not own at least a small part of in some small way. Even most of the companies that had originally started without their assistance, if they'd ever fallen into hard times, had usually ended up approaching them at some point or another for help to avoid bankruptcy. While it was true that they owned as little as 5% of some businesses, they owned as much as 50% of others, unwilling to take the reigns from any given company's CEO – they didn't need the extra hassle, for one thing – though depending on how much involvement a company needed in order to be saved, sometimes they would just buy them out and resell them, if the original owners had been bumbling idiots unworthy of owning their own company. Sometimes Sesshoumaru even bought stock of something just for the amusement of watching the stock's value skyrocket once everyone else saw that they had purchased it, the business world at large figuring that they must know something about that company, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of their name bringing success. It had gotten to the point where Sesshoumaru didn't even have to _do_ anything; just being Sesshoumaru was what made him successful.

While they'd already had a presence in America through a backdoor of sorts, since various car manufacturers and other companies had branched out themselves and had strong presence overseas, they'd now more recently in the last couple decades made themselves known in America independently, willing to fund and support new American-made companies that they believed showed genuine potential to become just as powerful as anything back home. Since the Internet boom, their American office primarily dealt with the Dot Com industry; it was Inuyasha's personal field of expertise and something Sesshoumaru had given him free reign over to see whether or not the boy truly had what it took to make his own decisions when it came to who to back and who to back away from.

"Ever heard of ?" Inuyasha asked smugly. He frowned as Kagome laughed.

"I bet you're the one behind the suggestive 'It's all about the _O_' slogans."

Chuckling, he shook his head, gesturing to his white hair and red t-shirt as he replied with, "Nah, though I did inadvertently inspire their color scheme when I met with their designer, since it turned out she was one of us and could see through the charm."

It was her turn to chuckle.

Any further chatting along those lines came to a sudden and immediate halt as the sun slipped out of sight and Kagome found herself gasping as her hand flew up to her heart, staring in wide-eyed fascination as Inuyasha's youki pulsed weaker and weaker as it drained out of him the same time the physical changes overtook his body. She couldn't blink for fear of missing it, as black bled down his silver locks turning them raven, as his canine ears shifted and morphed, traveling down the sides of his head while simultaneously reshaping themselves into rounded, human ears. His eyes darkened from golden amber to coffee brown, and his claws retracted into his fingertips, becoming blunt human nails. In only a matter of seconds it was over, and she could feel absolutely no trace of youki from the man sitting beside her. He was human.

"Are you sure that doesn't hurt?" were the first words out of her mouth, her concern obvious in her tone.

He sighed a bit, already feeling the onslaught of human emotions wanting to screw with him, though he would endeavor to keep from acting like a fool.

"Nah…it definitely feels _weird_, but it's not painful."

She noted as he spoke that his fangs were also missing, as she knew they would be, though she hadn't been expecting the sound of his voice to be slightly different. It was the same, but yet somehow…softer.

Pulling their fish from the fire before she forgot about them and accidentally burned them, she handed Inuyasha his fish with a mumbled, "I'm glad."

He blushed a bit at her words and then immediately chastised himself mentally for letting such a simple statement affect him. Of _course_ she would be glad that it wasn't painful for him. What, had he thought she was some sort of sadist who would've gotten off on him screaming in agony? Feh! There was nothing special about her being relieved to know that his transformation didn't pain him, it only made her a decent human being.

Immediately tearing into his fish, he didn't comment back on her statement except for a non-committal grunt after he had a mouthful of food, though Kagome must have taken the sound as a thanks of sorts since she smiled a little before digging into her own fish.

Everything was silent for the next few minutes as they ate, save for the chirping of crickets, then tossing the remains of his fish into the fire when he was done, Inuyasha glanced around their campsite, grumbling low about how he really did hate turning human.

"The transformation itself ain't that bad, but I hate losing all my senses. I'm fucking blind." he griped, instinctively creeped out by not being able to see into the shadows all around them any longer.

"Is that like flying blind?" Kagome joked as she finished her own fish, hoping to loosen him up a bit. "You can't see what you're fucking but you're just gonna go for it anyway and hope for the best?"

Barking out an amused laugh, Inuyasha shook his head, stating playfully, "You've got a rather naughty mouth for a miko."

Shrugging, she retorted just as playfully with, "I'm a rather naughty miko."

Waggling his eyebrows, Inuyasha's face then got more serious as he stated that now that dinner was over it was her turn to share more about herself, since he'd shared so much of his own past already. Secretly, he figured it would prevent him from accidentally making a fool of himself if he kept quiet for the time being, though he honestly really _was _interested in hearing more about the girl…which still surprised him though he had to admit to himself that it was true.

Nodding her agreement that fair was fair, Kagome told Inuyasha more about her life in that moment, though there wasn't anywhere near as much to tell and it wasn't anywhere near as exciting as his life had been. She'd grown up on a shrine in Tokyo, moved to America after her twentieth birthday, the end, as far as she was concerned, though she did try to wrack her brain for filler at the expectant look in his eyes. She told him that while her family had always known about youkai, there hadn't been anyone in her immediate family who had been powerful enough to fully see through concealment charms for a few generations. Her father and grandfather could both 'sense' youkai, feeling their demonic auras and knowing which people among them were not human, but they couldn't see through the glamours unless they _really _concentrated, and even then they couldn't fully get rid of the double-image effect, being able to focus enough to see the youkai's true form but not enough to make the illusion of their concealment charm go away completely.

At their rudimentary power level, Inuyasha had been right in his guess that the sect had more or less left them alone, because they weren't strong enough to be trained as members of the defense team. They were registered as being spiritualists rather than normies in the know, because they certainly _weren't _normies, having come from a long line of houshi and miko, but her grandfather had speculated that it was evolution in a way that was making their powers wane through the generations as there had been peace for so long that spiritual warriors were simply no longer needed. That had been their belief, at least, until little Kagome at age four had asked about the funny blue and green haired people with red eyes in the grocery store. She had been hushed quickly and rushed home where everything had immediately been explained to her. They had always intended on filling her in on the truths of the world they lived in, but not until she was older and more able to understand it. Being able to see through the spells so naturally, though, had left her family with little choice but to start her training much earlier than anticipated.

Bringing in Kaede, the elderly miko quickly became a close friend of the family, and like a grandmother to Kagome, who spent the next several years teaching and training the girl. It had been Kaede's job to report to the sect just how powerful Kagome actually was, and while they wouldn't _draft _her and force her to learn to fight against her will, they were openly disappointed by her decision to refuse battle training. Her powers were definitely strong enough to be of use in taking out a rogue, should a rogue ever need to be taken out. Kagome did admit to Inuyasha in that moment that she had let Kaede train her on how to channel her spiritual powers into an object, though, as well as how to form barriers, which she'd already admitted before to knowing how to create. At least the purifying ones; solid ones were another matter entirely and took way too much energy and focus. She hadn't thought at the time that learning how to create a solid barrier was necessary, wanting only to make sure she had full control over her purifying energies. While she had no actual training with a weapon such as a sword or a bow and arrow, or even a gun, she _could _charge up just about any ol' blunt object to use as a spiritual weapon if push came to shove.

"Just because I don't want that kind of life doesn't mean I was dumb enough, even as a kid, to think I didn't need training when it came to my own powers. What if I accidentally zapped somebody if I got mad and my powers flared up against my will? Control means _full _control, and I couldn't risk not having full control of my powers, for the sake of them not ever running away from me, just like you and your youkai blood." she explained. "So even though I never learned how to do extra things, like mask the feel of my aura, I know how to bring my powers to the surface to use them, and I know how to keep them at bay so that I don't _accidentally _use them. I've never taken a life, but I've destroyed hundreds of shikigami. I'm not a warrior, and in hand-to-hand combat I know I'd lose, but if a rogue youkai were to ever attack me for the sake of being a miko, I could at least defend myself spiritually. Unlike the monk who attacked you, I wouldn't have to worry about purifying a hanyou who would then attack me as a human with a weapon I couldn't fight off, because _I'm _not the one who'll ever go rogue and go _looking _for trouble."

He nodded his understanding, glad to know that she wasn't totally defenseless, and also that she had no intention of becoming a vigilante. Not that such a thought had ever crossed his mind in the first place, though it was still comforting to hear.

Continuing her tale, Kagome explained how, having decided to not allow her destiny to be chosen for her, she had tried her best to live her life as a normal girl outside of her spiritual training, going to school, having friends. It was hard at times, living a double-life of sorts, but while she knew she wanted to be in charge of her own destiny, she _was _a firm believer of fate; she was meant to have her powers, for whatever reason. When she first decided that she wanted to go to school in America her family had been surprised, but supportive, and she had cooperated with the spiritual sect by staying registered with them, although she _had _applied for American citizenship for the sole purpose of protecting herself from being deported. She wouldn't put it past them to pull some strings to get her back if they ever decided they wanted her. Now, they would just have to ask nicely. Inuyasha chuckled at that, liking how she'd gotten one up on them.

Upon his inquiry, Kagome also informed him that her family _had _known that Kouga was an ookami-youkai, and while her grandfather hadn't been too happy about it, her mother had stated softly that times were different now than they used to be, and that if normal humans in the know were allowed to be with youkai if they so chose, why should it be any different for them? Her father, while clearly reluctant, had eventually conceded to his wife's viewpoint, and Kagome had gone on her date with her parents' consent, while her grandfather had tried to get her to take a wad of ofuda to use like a can of pepper spray if 'the wolf' _tried _anything. Kouga had been a perfect gentleman, of course, and Kagome _knew _he had turned against her because of pressure from his father, so she tried not to hold it against him. While she would never be willing to take him back if he ever hypothetically showed up and apologized, asking for a second chance, she would be adult enough to tell him to his face that she forgave him for his cowardice.

"He could have just told me that his father forbad our seeing each other and broke up with me like a normal boy, he didn't have to be a total dick to me for the rest of the school year, pretending he'd never liked me to begin with. But word had probably started to spread among the other youkai that we'd dated, and so he'd probably had to turn hostile to save face among his peers. Seventeen-year-old boys, ya know?" she said with a shrug.

"Fortunately, I haven't been seventeen for quite some time." Inuyasha stated almost reassuringly, which seemed odd to her for some reason, though smirking, Kagome decided to roll with it.

"Oh good, so then I won't have to worry about you acting all juvenile when we go out on our date?" she teased, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at the flabbergasted expression on his face.

"Uhh…" he muttered, completely caught off guard and unsure whether or not she was just teasing or if there was actually a hint of seriousness buried underneath. He didn't want to say the wrong thing and embarrass himself.

Kagome, unaware of her companion's own mental dilemma, was working up the courage to seriously ask him out on a date, herself, despite the risk of humiliation involved should he not be interested. Hesitantly opening her mouth to breach the subject, she was proverbially saved by the bell when her question got cut off as she tried her best to stifle a huge yawn.

Chuckling lightly to himself at how adorable that made her look, Inuyasha murmured while tossing more wood into the fire, "You can go to bed if you're tired. You don't gotta keep me company."

"What about you?" she asked innocently. "You don't even have a place to sleep since you were just perching in the tree before."

"Keh, that don't matter." he told her, explaining, "I didn't used to ever sleep during my human night, hating how I felt so defenseless. My father wasn't without his enemies back in the day, and killin' me to get to him would've been an assassin's easiest assignment. I always stayed locked away in my room during the new moon, but you couldn't stop a castle full of dogs from smelling the change, not to mention sensing the disappearance of my youki, so pretty much everybody knew when my human time was. Oyaji had his most loyal guards always stationed at my door and outside my window, men who knew that my death would mean their deaths, but that didn't mean I'd felt secure enough to sleep soundly. Of course, these days I feel pretty safe at the house with our digital security system, but I'm sure I can handle stayin' up all night like I used to."

Nodding her head in determination, Kagome said, "Then I'll stay up with you."

He offered her an appreciative smile before shaking his head lightly.

"I ain't really too worried, Kagome. It's not like I really think that something's gonna suddenly show up and attack us. This ain't the Feudal era or whatever. But like you said, I don't got a place to sleep, so I'll just stay up. That doesn't mean you have to stay up with me."

"It doesn't mean I can't."

He quirked a brow at her, surprised but also deeply touched by her conviction. The atmosphere between them was getting a tad too serious, though.

"And what if I actually wanted the privacy so I can masturbate?"

Laughing, Kagome didn't know why that question actually made her feel better, as if feeling relieved that despite his transformation he was still the same man after all.

"And that'll take what? Three minutes? Then what are you going to do with yourself for the rest of the night?"

He chuckled.

"Besides," she added then, wondering why she was tempting fate by pushing it the extra step even as the words left her mouth. "Maybe I want to watch."

Fortunately he only laughed harder instead of getting embarrassed or deciding to embarrass _her _by calling her bluff again. He clearly had _some _kind of a retort, however, as he opened his mouth to speak, but then suddenly he was the one yawning, much to his horror, which had Kagome giggling again as his cheeks noticeably darkened.

_We can joke about him yanking it and that doesn't faze him, but to accidentally reveal that he's tired embarrasses him_. She mentally threw her hands up in the air. _Men…_

"I'll make you a deal…" she started then, deciding to completely ignore the recent masturbation jokes. "Either we both stay up all night, or we _both _get some sleep. You can share my 'nest'."

His eyes widened a bit at those words, though he could tell she was being serious from the tender expression on her face, the look in her eyes betraying only her genuine concern for him. Mentally kicking himself even as he knew he was a slave to his human emotions, knowing he should make some kind of a crude joke while also knowing he wasn't going to, he asked her with unmasked amazement in his voice, "You…wouldn't mind?"

"Of course not."

At those words she made her way over to said nest, pulling back the blanket to reveal the layered futon of leaves underneath. It looked…cozy…and way too intimate for strangers. The bedding was much too small for the two of them to sleep side-by-side without touching.

"When I offered to hold you in my arms before you turned me down." he pointed out.

"That was before I got to know you." she replied, giggling as she added, "You may be a bit of a hentai at times, but you're harmless."

"My bark is worse than my bite, huh?" he joked, poking fun at the double meaning because of his canine heritage.

Shaking her head with a bit of a wry grin on her lips, Kagome slipped off her shoes before settling herself down into her makeshift bedding, holding the blanket open in blatant invitation. When he hesitated she joked, "Come on, I don't bite…unless you ask me to."

Laughing a bit, her joke successfully melted the building tension he felt at the notion of sharing her bedding. Settling himself down beside her, then, he was amazed to feel just how warm her little nest truly was when the blanket was pulled up and over their bodies. Of course, it was a bit uncomfortable lying flat on his back with her body pressed up against his side, but if he tried to scoot any further away from her he'd fall out of the nest. Hearing her sigh beside him, he hesitantly turned his head to look her way, immediately relieved by her relaxed, knowing look.

"This from a man who held me in his lap ten feet off the ground this morning?" she questioned playfully. "What happened to you holding me in your arms, huh? I mean, I expected _part _of you might stiffen from our proximity, but not your whole freakin' body."

He chuckled a bit despite himself; she had been right before, his sense of humor _was_ rubbing off on her. Still, it was making him feel better.

"Here…it's okay, really." Kagome said then, reaching across his body for his left arm before turning and rolling herself over onto her right, dragging him with her so that he was forced to roll over as well. Suddenly, Inuyasha found himself lying on his right side behind her, his left arm draped over her body as she spooned herself against his embrace.

He had thought it would feel even more awkward, stiffening up for a moment as he realized what she was doing as if mentally bracing for impact, but then suddenly, Inuyasha realized that nothing could feel more _right _than laying there with Kagome in his arms, and he found himself curling their bodies together even closer, resting his hand on her stomach. He was convinced it had to be because of the new moon and his overactive human emotions, but still, for that night, for that one moment in time, he wouldn't deny himself.

"Stupid fly…" he heard Kagome mutter as she reached up with her left hand to wave a bug away from her face.

"Yeah, guess they're not afraid of me any more. Sorry." he mumbled self-consciously, as if he had somehow failed her by preventing to keep the bugs away any longer.

"S'okay…used to camp before. Used to it." Kagome muttered, already sounding like she was falling asleep.

"I'm gonna turn hanyou again at the breech of sunrise." he found himself murmuring suddenly, though as if to warn her of the transformation itself or to reassure her regarding the insects even he couldn't be certain. Was it really possible she was only allowing their proximity because he was currently human? Would she react negatively to waking up in the arms of a half-breed? From everything he knew about her so far he doubted it, but still…

"So?" she answered back drowsily. Her tone indicated that she wasn't confused by his statement, suspecting what he might've been worried about while at the same time wishing to reassure him he had _nothing _to worry about.

He remained silent then, giving her body a little squeeze for a second in a wordless display of what her nonchalance really meant to him, his gratitude that she was honestly, miraculously, not bothered by the fact that he was half youkai. He wondered briefly when he'd come to think of himself as being human except for being half youkai, as opposed to being youkai except for being half human, but he supposed considering he was presently _all _human it was all right to think of himself from that perspective. He still felt connected to his dormant inu half in _some _ways. Burying his nose in her hair for a moment, Inuyasha cursed his weakened sense of smell, but feeling his exhaustion start to consume him, he didn't fight it, for once not feeling awkward in the slightest to be wrapped around a female body. He couldn't remember the last time he'd held a woman as he slept while honestly enjoying the experience, and they hadn't even had sex first! Was this what women referred to as 'cuddling'? It was something he thought he could get used to, so long as the woman was the one presently in his arms.

He was too tired to even realize that some part of his mind should have offered a protest to that latest thought, as he drifted off into the most pleasant dreams he'd had since before his mother's passing.

****

*After some mild debate with myself, I decided to use the actual Romaji spelling for 'senpai' instead of the phonetic spelling of 'sempai'…I figured I would run the risk of getting corrected either way, so I wanted to do it right. The correct spelling, using the Hiragana-to-Romaji translation chart, is 'senpai' because N (ん) is the only consonant that stands alone as its own syllable, and senpai in Hiragana is spelled with the three syllables se-n-pai. _However, _their N is actually pronounced as an _M _when preceding bilabial consonants, so if you saw my spelling and were thinking to yourself "I thought the word was 'sempai'" then fear not, because audibly you were right, that is how you say it.


	4. I Dare You

Chapter 4 – I Dare You

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Inuyasha woke with a start at the feel of his youkai blood pulsing to life in his veins, the woman at his side bolting awake beside him as she felt the same thing. His first thought was, _Crap, I fell asleep_, which was quickly followed by, _Holy shit! _as he remembered just exactly how that had come about the night before.

Kagome, meanwhile, was breathing a sigh of relief with her hand over her heart, her instincts having yanked her from her slumber like somebody dumping a bucket of ice water on her brain. For that split second in time, she knew what it was like to be a frightened animal, the feel of Inuyasha's demonic aura roaring to life right beside her having spooked her like the bang of an explosion. It was a purely instinctual reaction, and in that moment she turned his way with a different kind of fear in her eyes, desperately praying that he wasn't going to take her reaction to his youki the wrong way.

Fortunately for her he seemed entirely too preoccupied with chastising himself to be bothered by something like that, though, as he mumbled to himself at a level she was sure he didn't realize was loud enough for her to hear.

"Fucking human emotions…" she heard him whisper.

"Knock that off." she spoke up immediately, causing his eyes to widen in panic as he slowly turned his head to look her way as if comically only just then realizing that he was still sitting right beside her while apparently scolding himself about sharing her bed the night before.

"I happen to have my own 'fucking human emotions', so you better watch what you say next if you don't want a fight on your hands." she scolded, only half kidding.

For some reason, though, her mild threat actually relaxed him. Inuyasha hadn't been thinking about teasing Kagome, and while it was true he was berating himself for having given into the weakness of wanting to take her up on her offer of sharing her bedding, his main concern upon waking up beside her had been what her reaction was going to be to the whole thing. She might have acted indifferent about it the night before, but he had four centuries worth of being on the receiving end of prejudice to overcome. Not something that could be wiped away all that easily in a single sitting. Thinking back on it, he was aware of how she had bolted awake quite suddenly at the return of his youki, but he wasn't concerned about the initial return of his demonic aura subconsciously spooking the slumbering miko. Hell, that just meant that her instincts were working, and that was actually one more thing for him to be impressed about where she was concerned, truth be told. But after Kagome had gotten the few seconds necessary to remember herself and where she was and most importantly whom she was with, a part of him had worried that she would want to immediately cease and desist with their unnecessary proximity. That she had apparently overheard him cursing to himself was mildly embarrassing, but what was truly amazing was her reaction to those few, simple words. And she still hadn't moved a muscle to vacate their nest/bed…and neither had he.

"I…uh…" he started after a moment, or at least _attempted _to start, finding that words were failing him for some unexplainable reason.

"Good morning." Kagome said then with a smirk, getting up and making a grab for her shoes before disappearing into the trees a short ways off to take care of business. He appreciated the brief reprieve, bounding off in the other direction to handle some business of his own.

He was glad she hadn't noticed his morning excitement.

Since the both of them had slept through the night there wasn't much left of their fire, though a few embers still remained and with the help of more of Kagome's lighter fluid their blaze was roaring again in no time. Once that minor issue was taken care of Inuyasha immediately ran off to fetch breakfast, and over all the morning passed by rather slowly.

Realizing he'd forgotten to mark the tree the night before, not that he could have after the sun had gone down, he carved a third notch in the bark in that moment, not that they'd truly been on the island long enough yet to have lost track of how long they'd been there. Today was the day of his business meeting in Los Angeles, though it was scheduled for mid afternoon. Considering the time difference, and that 2pm in LA was 5am the following morning in Japan, much too early to call your temperamental boss with news that would most likely piss him off, Inuyasha imagined that the manager of his Los Angeles branch would probably wait a while before immediately phoning Tokyo. First everyone at the office would just think he was running late. Even if they had heard about the crash it would never occur to any of them that he'd been on that plane since everybody knew they owned their own private jet and Sesshoumaru had screwed him over in the airplane department very last minute. They also knew down at the LA office that he liked to party while he was in town, and somebody might even speculate that he'd had a little too much fun in Vegas and had lost track of time. Inuyasha was a laid back boss, and so if ever he ended up finding out about them poking fun at him in such a way, especially if it were _true_, nobody would ever suffer any repercussions for making fun of their fun-loving CEO, and they knew it. Yes, in fact he was fairly certain that the jokes would start flying when he missed the meeting, nobody initially getting worried because everybody knew he was a big boy who could take care of himself. It probably wouldn't dawn on anyone that he was actually missing until the following morning when there was still no word. Trying his cell phone would send them straight to voice mail, and so eventually his district manager would have no choice but to swallow his fears and call Sesshoumaru, who was most definitely _not _a fun-loving boss. Then the ball would be in his elder brother's court. How long before the daiyoukai connected the dots?

Although it ultimately wouldn't be that big of a deal to cover up his own disappearance since they could always just make up some BS about some other kind of business emergency he'd had to attend to and his phone getting broken or something, Inuyasha was admittedly starting to become concerned for things on Kagome's end. Her family they could tell the truth, but what if her friends in LA already knew she was 'missing'? What if the news media had publicly announced the members of that flight? If she'd already been announced as having been on that flight and presumed dead it would complicate matters somewhat when she reappeared. Sure, it would be a relief for the public and her friends to hear that Kagome had actually missed her flight, perhaps very last minute so that her bags had already been checked and everything, but if that were the case then where had she been for the last four days?

_Cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess_… he decided in that moment, knowing there was no point in speculating without having any of the facts.

As if reading his mind, Kagome suddenly spoke up in that moment with, "Tomorrow's the last day of my vacation. I'm supposed to be back at work the day after tomorrow."

Smirking at her wryly, he confessed, "I have a business meeting with my LA manager this afternoon."

"Wonderful." she snorted.

"It'll be okay."

"I guess…since both you and I 'missed our flight' and have now been missing in action for the last few days, we could always say we ran away together. A secret love affair."

If he'd been drinking anything at that moment he would've done a spit-take at her words.

"Wh-what?"

"Sure…" she stated with a shrug, trying to sound nonchalant even though she was sure he could probably hear the frantic pounding of her heart. "I mean, so long as you don't have a girlfriend or anything. We could say that last minute we changed our flight to a later one and went to Hawaii instead, it's very romantic."

Smirking, he agreed, "That _would _explain why the two of us are both MIA, but I don't think you realize what a media craze that would become for you."

"Oh yeah, I forgot you were richer than Bill Gates."

He laughed disbelievingly. That wasn't the sort of thing anybody just forgot about. Her next words had him shutting up, though.

"Nobody would believe you were interested in me."

Was that disappointment in her voice?

Before he could think about how it might sound, he blurted out, "Hey, now wait just a damn minute. Who said I wouldn't be interested in you?"

Thinking back on it, she knew it was true that those words had never left his lips, though it wasn't exactly as if he'd declared _liking _her, either.

"Well sure we flirt and whatever," she shrugged off, again trying to sound nonchalant about it, "But come on, I'm sure you have women fawning all over you. Prettier women. Smarter women. Women who wear haute couture and carry around teacup poodles in diamond studded bags."

He crinkled his nose.

"Okay, first of all, while you might not be _quite _aspretty as some of those other women, you also don't reek of silicon and botox, and I prefer o'naturale anytime, anyplace. And smarter? Like, OMG, are you being totally serial right now? Because honey, unless you lied about going to medical school I'd say you've got the brains department covered. And who the hell do you think _buys _those bitches their haute couture? Finally…do I _look _like I want to deal with a yappy little under evolved ankle biter?"

Kagome couldn't help laughing at his momentary 'valley girl' accent. He really was fluent in multiple languages, because when he spoke English there wasn't a single trace of a Japanese accent, and that took time and practice.

"Do you think…you might want to…"

"Make your story true and go have a love affair in Hawaii?" he finished for her, waggling his brow. "Sure."

"Baka…" she mumbled, blushing as he laughed a bit. "But I'm serious though." she somehow managed to get out, holding her breath.

He took a deep breath himself at those words, hesitant to get his hopes up. He knew it would be best to just be straightforward and eliminate any chance of a misunderstanding.

"What are you asking me, Kagome? You want to go out on a date? For real?"

"It's stupid, right?" she replied, her tone defeated. "You probably think I just want you for your money."

"Surprisingly, I really don't get that vibe from you." he admitted, his tone of voice optimistic at her statement of wanting him before taking on a definite twinge of hesitance as he added reluctantly, "Although, there is the whole other…ya know…Montague and Capulet thing."

He was caught off guard by the sudden spike of sadness that came off of her at his words.

"Oh…"

"Hey now, wait a minute…" he spoke back up then, reaching forward and hooking a clawed finger under her chin to lift her eyes up to meet his own. "I _am _single right now, so…if you're really serious about giving it a try, then I'd be willing to see what happens." he confessed. "Screw what society thinks."

Her heart soared at his words.

"I guess we shouldprobably take it slow, really try to get to know each other." she stated after a moment, not wanting to scare the guy off if he found out just how drawn to him she'd actually become.

He scoffed at her words, though.

"We've been sharing our whole life stories with each other over the past three days, what else is there to know?"

"Oh I'm sure there's still all sorts of little nooks and crannies in each of our histories that we haven't shared yet."

"So what…you wanna play another round of twenty questions?" he asked then, his tone surprisingly accepting. While he didn't usually like talking about himself so much, he admittedly did like hearing about _her _life.

Furrowing her brow, Kagome thought about it for a moment before her eyes suddenly widened in unbridled enthusiasm, her expression unsettling enough that Inuyasha found himself unconsciously scooting back a bit.

"What?"

"We could play truth or dare!" she all but shouted, her expression giddy as she clapped her hands.

He snorted.

"Truth or dare? What are you, twelve?"

Sticking her tongue out at him, she defended, "Come on, it'll be fun! That way instead of just randomly trying to come up with stuff about ourselves to share, we only have to answer specific questions honestly, narrowing it down to what we each actually want to know."

He quirked a brow, noting an immediate and glaring flaw in her logic. "What if I choose _dare?"_ he purred.

She blushed a bit, before stating, "Well, I'm sure I can come up with something harmless enough."

She wasn't worried about him daring _her _since she would just keep picking 'truth'.

"Fuck that…" he argued playfully, stating, "What fun is harmless? I'll tell ya what, Ka-go-me, I'll play this little game with you, but only if we kick it up a notch. I'm talkin' the _adult _rated version of truth or dare, with questions worthy of 'I have never' and dares fit for college hazing."

She gulped, recognizing the serious challenge in his gaze. Did she dare agree to his terms? Was that already her accepting and executing his first dare of the day if she did so? She did have to admit, it certainly sounded like it would cure her boredom, although it also sounded like she'd be more up for it after a couple of beers, but swallowing her pride in that moment – and hopefully nothing else random and gross in the moments to follow – Kagome knew that she wanted to set some ground rules of her own before things got too carried away.

"I'll agree on one condition. We've got to set a bar for the daring."

"Fine." he agreed easily enough. "No sex."

"Wh-what?"

He quirked a brow.

"What? You _want _me to dare you for sex?"

"N-no!" she stated quickly, a little _too _quickly. "I mean…_that's _where you're capping it?"

"Come on, Kags, live a little." he stated playfully, waggling his eyebrows up and down.

"No touching each other sexually in any way." she insisted.

He thought about it for a moment, then finally smirked, agreeing "Deal." as he stuck out his hand for her to shake.

"Truth or dare?" he asked her first, getting the ball rolling without delay.

"Truth."

"Chicken..."

She narrowed her eyes a little. "Just ask your question."

Laughing, he asked, "Where's the kinkiest place you've ever had sex?"

Her face erupted into crimson fire and he couldn't hold in his laughter.

_She thought she'd be safe with 'truth', did she? Ha! _

"What's the matter? You're the one who wanted to get to know each other better."

"Don't think I won't get you back for this."

"Oh I'm looking forward to it, but you first."

"Fine…a bathroom stall at the AniCon."

If he hadn't already been sitting on the ground he would've fallen over at her words.

"Holy shit, really?" he laughed. "How the hell did _that_ happen?"

"It's my turn." she replied instead of answering him, and rolling his eyes he said, "Fine, fine."

"Truth or dare?"

"I know you want me to, so truth."

"Same question."

Thinking about it a moment, he answered honestly, "Disneyland."

"No freakin' way!" Kagome gasped out. "There are cameras _everywhere_. Security would be on you in like two seconds!"

"I didn't say _where_."

"Well one of the hotels doesn't count! Not even if you were staying _inside _the park at the castle because that's _still _a hotel room."

"You didn't elaborate so why should I?"

"Fine. Boyfriend had an anime fetish, and some demonstration of warrior chicks fighting in leather armor got him all hot so we ducked out for a quickie. You?"

"Dating a cast member at the time, naughty little thing smuggled me into her dressing room." he replied with a smirk. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"How far did you go with Kouga?"

She crinkled her nose. "We only had _one _date."

He raised an eyebrow. "So?"

Shaking her head in exasperation, she answered, "He gave me a goodnight kiss, on the lips, but it was _chaste_; no tongue action."

He snorted. "Boring."

"It was our first date!"

"Boring…" he insisted, adding, "I expect more than a chaste kiss after _our _first date."

"Yeah I'll bet you do." she muttered under her breath, knowing he'd hear her. He chuckled.

"Truth or dare?" she asked then, shaking her head again.

"_Dare_…" he cooed, waggling his eyebrows.

"Ugh."

"What's the matter, can't think of anything?"

"I suppose I could dare you to act civil for the rest of the game, but that'd be a waste of breath."

He laughed, chiming in with, "Not to mention the waste of a perfectly good dare. Come on prie…uh, Kagome. Fuck, sorry."

Her eyes softened a bit as he immediately dropped his routine in the face of accidentally almost calling her 'priestess' again. Deciding to let him know she forgave him for the slip and that she wasn't mad, she grew a set of balls in that moment, giving him a dare he would appreciate.

"Okay, just for that, I dare you to take your shirt off…"

He quirked a brow at her, smirking as he reached for the edge of his t-shirt, only to stop as she chimed in with, "…uh-uh-uh, and _keep _it off throughout the remainder of our game."

Grinning wider, he pulled his shirt off, tossing it aside. He would have put it back on after a few seconds if she hadn't specified that last part, just for the sake of teasing her about not being specific. 'Take it off' alone didn't indicate how long you had to _keep _it off, after all. He was pleased that she'd thought of that.

"You've done this before." he purred seductively.

"Maybe once or twice." she replied teasingly.

"Truth or dare?"

The look she gave him in that moment promised that he'd have to work a _lot _harder before she gave him the opportunity to get _her_ naked. "Truth." she voiced with a triumphant expression.

"How many sexual partners have you had?" he asked teasingly, taken aback by her upfront answer.

"Two. Hojo, high school boyfriend in Tokyo that I started dating a couple of months after the Kouga incident, and Josh, American boyfriend I met at a singles bar about a year after moving to California." she replied. "Truth or dare?"

Not in a tremendous hurry to get naked if she were going to stay dressed, he answered, "Truth."

"I'm not sure I want to ask you that same question…" she stated more to herself with a chuckle in her own voice that he echoed, letting her know the number was probably really up there, assuming he hadn't lost count. But there was one thing she _did _want to know. "How many _serious relationships _have you had?"

He sighed. "Truthfully?"

She raised an eyebrow. "That is kind of the point, yeah."

Raising his right hand to rub awkwardly at the back of his head, he reluctantly answered, "One."

She was surprised by the melancholy in his tone, as if the heartache was still fresh.

"How long ago was this?"

"It's my turn." he answered evasively. "Truth or dare?"

Kagome had absolutely no idea what she was thinking when she answered, "Dare."

"Oh _ho_…" he laughed, his eyes widening gleefully. She cringed.

_Please go easy on me_… she silently begged, not sure she could handle jumping right into the nastier stuff, even though she was sure their game would wind up down that road at some point or another. She was caught off guard when he handed her one of the sticks waiting its turn to become firewood.

"Channel your miko powers into this like a weapon."

She was confused. "Why?"

He merely shrugged. "I wanna feel how strong you are."

Shrugging herself, Kagome secretly sighed in relief that he had taken pity on her, figuring he'd picked something harmless on purpose just because he could tell how nervous she'd been getting. Closing her eyes and concentrating, it didn't take long at all for the thin section of branch in her hands to start glowing a bright pink. Inuyasha could feel the energy tickle the hairs on his arms, the feel of her aura against his own buzzing loudly in his mind like the hum of a bug zapper. But he didn't fear her. He was impressed by her strength. It was as if she had inherited the power of every preceding generation of her family that had supposedly had none, as if their bodies had planned on donating their energy into the next generation all along, and so their powers had been locked away in stasis to be passed on to Kagome without any of it getting used up by them beforehand.

"Now try aiming the stick at that tree and projecting your energy." he instructed. She looked his way, frowning.

"That wasn't part of the original dare. You can't add new instructions as you go."

"Humor me for a second, then we'll get back to the game. I want to see if you can do it."

"Of course I can." she snorted. "I told you, I never studied with actual _weapons_, so I can't _fight_, but I know how to use my powers." That being said, she waved the stick in her hand, much like a magic wand, throwing her best interpretation of a British accent on top of her Japanese one as she jokingly chanted, "Purifious Demonstratous!" as a ball of pink energy flew out of the end of the stick and slammed into the trunk of the tree he'd pointed at.

Laughing so hard he had to hold his stomach, Inuyasha reached up with one hand and waved in Kagome's direction placatingly, stating, "Okay okay, you win…" between his guffaws.

"Truth or dare?" Kagome asked then, smirking triumphantly.

"Truth." he answered, for fear of retaliation of the dare variety.

"Who is this mystery woman that tamed the beast? If we're going to give 'us' a try then I deserve to know."

Sighing, he conceded that she was right. It wouldn't be fair to keep such a thing from her if they were going to try giving a genuine relationship between the two of them a chance.

"Her name was Kikyou, and she was a 'normie in the know' I guess is what your kind would call her." he began, ignoring the way Kagome raised a brow at his reference to 'her kind'. "It's been almost a century now since she passed on," he added, "So it's not like I'm still all heartbroken over it or whatever. She was just the only human girl to date who had stuck by me after finding out what I was, and after a hundred years that gets a little depressing, ya know? I've dated a couple of youkai women, but they were only after me for status, likewise the other human girls I've been with. In both the human and youkai worlds I'm rich and powerful, and that's enough for some of the youkai to overlook my hanyou status, not that I would give any of _them _the time of day, like they were really doing me any favors by being 'willing' to be with me 'despite' my mixed blood. My human girlfriends over the years on the other hand…turned out while most of them never knew what I was, they were all just after me for my money, too, except for Kikyou. Oh, I was already rich and powerful back then, but so was she, in her own right. She'd come from a fairly wealthy family, so I had confidence going in that it wasn't about the money, so then my worry became that she would freak when she found out I was half youkai. We have to be _very _careful when revealing ourselves like that, and Sesshoumaru hadn't even wanted me to do it, but it's kind of not very honorable to actually marry the girl without letting her know what I am, so when I was ready to pop the question I dropped the bomb, too. Miraculously, she stuck by me, and for several decades we were really happy, but of course, being human and without any youki of her own there was no way I could tie us together permanently as soul-mates, if you remember from your studies that mated youkai can sometimes merge their souls together if their auras are compatible…?"

Kagome nodded, letting him know she had in fact learned that bit of information during her studies.

"So there's really no grand heartbreaking tale of failed lovers or anything like that, we were married for almost eighty years. She just…grew old and died. Such is life." he finished.

Kagome felt tears stinging the back of her eyes.

"Did you guys have any children?"

He looked at her funny at that, his melancholy demeanor instantly replaced by the smug comedian she'd gotten used to over the last few days.

"I told you I can't stand the little bastards, remember?" he replied with a quirk of his lips. She chuckled a bit despite herself.

"You're not sterile are you?" she asked then, "Being a hybrid, I mean?"

"That's a rather personal question for the first date, don't you think?"

"Oh?" she shot back. "And since when is _this _the first date?"

"Since I said so."

"That's just so you can try to go further once we go on our _real _date, because then you can pretend it's the _second_ date."

"Oh? So you admit to going further on the second date, then?"

She smirked. "Depends on what you mean by 'going further'. A longer drive, perhaps?"

Chuckling a bit, he said, "Whose turn is it, anyway? You keep on breaking the rules by asking me additional questions."

"Says the man who asked me to purify a defenseless tree."

"Truth or dare?" he asked her then, amusement sparkling in his eyes.

"Dare." she challenged, refusing to back down at the knowing look he gave her.

"Remove _your _shirt and keep it off throughout the rest of the game."

_It was only a matter of time_… she told herself, taking a shaky breath before reaching her fingers up and slowly – very slowly – undoing the buttons on her blouse. He hadn't said anything about her bra, so that sucker stayed right where it was as she tossed her blouse aside.

"Truth or dare?"

"Dare." he stated confidently.

_Is he daring me to dare __him__ to get naked? _she wondered at the look in his eyes, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of being so predictable. He'd be getting naked soon enough; there was no hurry. She wanted to catch him off guard with something first.

"Dares fit for college hazing, huh?" she muttered more to herself though obviously loud enough for him to hear her. She wanted him to sweat a little at what she could possibly be planning. "Unfortunately I don't have any Clamato, so I dare you to drink water from the pond with one of my tampons."

"Is that all?" he asked as if disappointed, getting up and heading over to their boulder/table and taking said item from her collection of laid out possessions. "Pfff, I've been going to Rocky Horror shows in Hollywood since the early '90s, so you'll have to get more creative than _that _if you want shock value." he stated as he opened the wrapper, pulled out the device and proceeded to dunk it in their drinking water until it was at full capacity. Pulling it out, he held it up overhead by the string and brought it down to his mouth in a grandiose manner, like a Grecian nobleman being fed grapes. Kagome cursed under her breath as he sucked it dry, wracking her brain for something better to get him with next time.

"Truth or dare?" he asked after tossing the tampon aside.

She'd suddenly lost her nerve. "Truth."

Laughing at her mildly panicked expression, he decided to go easy on her, asking, "How long ago did you and Josh break up and why?"

She visibly relaxed. "A little over a year ago, and it was a fairly mutual breakup because outside of sex we really didn't have all that much in common."

"Outgrew parading around for him in sailor fuku, huh?" he teased.

Smirking, she replied with, "Actually, his favorite was yukata that were a little too small, wrapped loosely to show off a lot of boob."

Gesturing to the ample amount of cleavage spilling out of the top of her bra, he said, "Man had good taste."

"So did your wife." Kagome answered softly, offering him a gentle smile when his eyes softened a bit as well, as he gave her a brief nod of appreciation for her words. "Truth or dare?" she asked him then.

"Truth."

"Have you ever been with a miko before?"

He was openly surprised by that question.

"No…actually I haven't. I guess probably because no miko's ever wanted to be with _me _before. That's just how the world works."

"Well the world is full of a bunch of idiots." Kagome replied, snorting. "I mean, sure I get it, our peoples, they were enemies once upon the time. But that was forever ago. It might be cliché, but can't we all just get along?"

He shook his head. "It might have been over a dozen generations for the humans, and the 'normies' have all but convinced themselves that youkai never even existed in the first place, out of sight out of mind, but there are quite a few other youkai besides myself and my brother who remember what it was like to live through the revolution. For most of them, opinions aren't so easily changed, when we actually remember your people being our enemies. Just because they had agreed to peace didn't mean they'd thought of your kind as our friends all of a sudden. A closer analogy would be that you guys are our parole officers. We have to answer to you and we always feel like we're under surveillance; there ain't no love there."

"What about your own opinions, personally?"

"I'm here with you aren't I?" he pointed out. "I could've just left your ass to die on that plane, but there was no way I would've been able to live with myself if I'd done that. Something in me made me save you, and I don't regret that. I don't know _why_, but I'm drawn to you." he admitted, earning a warm smile from the miko.

"Look," he continued then, "Basically it's like this, youkai were running rampant and destroying humans until some humans evolved with spiritual powers to combat the youkai, then you've got your basic few centuries of stalemates in power with occasional deaths on both sides until the spiritual humans said enough is enough and bartered with the remaining youkai for peace. I'm sure your sensei's books explained how most species of youkai who agreed to the treaty without a fight were relatively harmless to mankind begin with, how some even _liked _humans, and that we were all pretty much forced into hiding for our own safety because human prejudice as a whole was such that even non-spiritual humans were trying to hunt and kill any youkai near their homes for fear of what might happen should they let the youkai live. And as you've pointed out yourself, you _are _human. Miko and houshi aren't a separate race, not really. Even though I know I'm guilty of viewing you that way myself, the truth is you guys are just gifted humans, the 'chosen ones' that the fates bred to combat my kind. You were quite literally _born _to be our enemies."

She shook her head, not in denial but just in general displeasure of the situation. "It might be blasphemous, but I think the spiritualists and the youkai should come together as one people separated from the _normal_ humans. Sure, we have our differences, but we have a lot in common, too. We both have to live in fear of being found out about, we're both magic and defy the natural laws of science as we know them; I think we're more alike than either side would care to admit." she said.

"True," he agreed, admitting, "Honestly, I feel the same way, but your people are just like humans where it counts the most, in that despite having magical abilities, you _are _still _human_.It's my kind that're the aliens, the 'non-humans', the secret beasts and monsters that you guys have to keep an eye on to make sure we don't disturb the peace. It's a fucked up truth, but I guess it's being half human myself that allows me to admit it. I can kind of see the world from both sides of the fence, I suppose, having grown up with a human mother. Even though I associate myself with the inu-youkai clan and consider myself youkai instead of human, I can at least understand why your people did what they did. If the cease-fire hadn't been reached so soon after Oyaji's death I probably would've taken up arms myself."

He sighed.

"And of course, Sesshoumaru is still convinced that no spiritualist could have ever taken him out, and that he'd chosen to comply solely because he was evolving along with the business world we were already a part of, but I do think that if he'd sung a different tune and tried to stay his old-fashioned war-mongering self that the spiritualists would have gotten together and taken him out. He might be one of the most powerful youkai besides our father to have ever lived, but he's still a _youkai_, which means that enough reiki can and would harm him, if it were strong enough."

Smirking, he added, "And I think you might just be powerful enough to do it."

Her eyes widened at that, a very comical _'Me…?' _expression on her face as her mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish. "You…you think I'm powerful enough to stand up to a _daiyoukai?_" she whispered in shock, never having thought she was _that _powerful.

"Oh, without any kind of combat training Sesshoumaru would probably drop you in under a second, not that I want to pit you two against each other anyways, but just sayin', yeah, spiritually speaking, you've got enough reiki to at least injure the bastard, and me too. I do agree with your viewpoint as far as our two peoples being alike in a way, though, because I do gotta admit, instead of it weirding me out that you can fry me I'm actually finding myself more drawn to you because of it. It's like…you're human, but yet at the same time you're _not _just a normal human, and that does actually give us something in common compared to the other 'normal' humans of the world who have no idea what the fuck is going on. I've definitely never dated a miko before, but I must admit I'm looking forward to it. You intrigue me."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"It was meant as one."

"Whose turn is it?" she asked then with a twinkle in her eyes.

"I believe that would be me. Truth or dare?" he asked, unable to mask his elation when she chose 'dare'.

_Uh-oh_… she gulped at his expression.

"Bra off…for the remainder of the game.

_Damn_…

Complying, Kagome reluctantly reached behind herself and unclasped her bra. She had most certainly learned her lesson; she needed to keep her head in the game and not get distracted by conversation. Just because he could turn serious and compliment her spiritual abilities didn't mean he was suddenly no longer a perverted bastard.

"Oh well…" she said aloud with a shrug as she tossed her bra aside, hoping to appear nonchalant about it. "Not anything you haven't already seen, just a less obstructed view." she stated conversationally. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

She smiled, a kind of 'cat that ate the canary' grin that had Inuyasha chuckling rather than feeling nervous. Kagome figured it was only a matter of time before he attacked her skirt and panties, anyway, so even though her next dare would almost definitely speed things along in her own undressing, she figured she might as well let him know she wasn't a child and she wasn't afraid.

"Your turn, jeans off and they stay off."

This time the thought of getting naked in front of Kagome didn't bother him at all, since he knew she was physically attracted to him. Even more than that, she was apparently interested in him enough as a person to actually want to date him, even despite the whole youkai/miko thing. If she was willing to make such a bold step then so was he, as far as putting their differences aside to give a relationship a try. In that moment, though, all he had to put aside were his jeans, which he did in that moment after stripping them off slowly and sensually, smirking at the way Kagome openly ogled him the entire time. Sitting back down, he decided to kick things up a notch by regaining his cross-legged position instead of some other posture that could have preserved some of his modesty. Let her stare at his family jewels for as long as she wanted. If anything, the feel of her eyes upon him was turning him on, and he honestly wouldn't mind giving her _that _kind of a show, either.

"So, the cold of the ocean really _had _affected you." she commented, her voice deceptively contemplative although he could tell she was squee-ing on the inside as the young woman that she was.

He smirked. "I'll take that as a compliment."

She met his eyes. "It was meant as one."

Shaking his head, he chuckled a bit to himself before asking, "Truth or dare?"

"I'm not going to make it _that_ easy." she teased. "Truth."

"Hmmm…" he murmured in thought, trying to think of something good. "You've been single for over a year…" he stated matter-of-factly, that part having been previously established. She narrowed her eyes, just knowing he was going to ask her something sexual and embarrassing.

"Do you have any sex toys-"

She opened her mouth…

"-And _if _so, what kind?" he finished, smirking triumphantly as she shut her mouth with an audible click of her teeth.

"Fuck you." she muttered under her breath.

"Nope, can't dare me for sex, remember?" he teased, laughing outright as she glared at him.

"Yes, and a vibrator, all right?"

"Whoo-hoo!" he chimed while waving a hand in the air.

"Shut up…Truth or dare?"

"Well _that's _contradictive. How can I answer you if I have to shut up?"

"You just talked, didn't you? So obviously you aren't going to obey my command of shutting up, so truth or dare already?"

"Testy, are we? Miss your dildo? Oh! Was it in your luggage?"

"No!" she shrieked, her face flaming as he laughed. "Like I would bring it with me through the airport, are you mad?"

"I wonder how many of those go through the scanners on a daily basis…" he murmured more to himself. "If I worked for TSA I'd have a betting pool going on a daily basis for how many were counted."

"Sounds like something you'd do." she agreed sardonically.

Laughing quietly, he finally answered her with, "Truth."

"Have _you _ever used a sex toy?"

"Quite a few, over the years." he admitted easily enough. "One of my girlfriends a few years back especially liked butt plugs for some reason."

Shaking her head, Kagome said, "I meant on _yourself_."

She thought he was going to 'tsk' her for not specifying. Instead, he caught her off guard by admitting, "They _were _used on me." while waggling his eyebrows. "You can't embarrass me when it comes to sex, Kagome." he told her bluntly.

"I happen to remember you getting embarrassed quite a few times over the last few days."

"Yeah, well…even if that's true, you can't embarrass me any more. I've gotten over it."

"We'll see about that." she cooed, before rolling her eyes as she admitted, "Though I guess first it's your turn to embarrass me some more."

Smirking in triumph, he asked her knowingly, "Truth or dare?"

"May as well get this over with. Dare."

"I agree, may as well get it over with. Skirt _and _panties, bye bye."

Rising to her feet, she unzipped her skirt, stepping out of it gracefully enough as it pooled around her feet. Then sitting back down on the grass, she reached for her shoes first. He hadn't said anything about them, but she saw no point in leaving them on, and would actually feel even weirder being naked but with shoes on, like an actress in a porno or something. Tossing her Mary Janes aside, she then hooked her thumbs into the edges of her panties and gave a little tug, lifting her hips to pass the curve of her ass, then down they went along her legs until they cleared her feet and joined the rest of their clothing in the combined pile they'd created since the beginning of this stupid game. Had this really been her idea? Well…yes and no, but she'd allowed him to warp her plans so ultimately, she knew she was to blame.

Trying to kneel in a way that left the majority of her modesty intact, that posture didn't prevent Inuyasha from having glimpsed all he'd wanted to while she had still been in the process of removing her underwear.

"Wow, you weren't kidding about needing a razor." he joked, laughing as her face turned beat red. It had been clear where she had previously trimmed her pubic hair, short stubble filling in the edges around a thicker patch in the center.

"Whatever."

"Hey, come on now, don't be like that. You could probably sketch me from memory like one of those art class students by now."

She blushed a little more at his words, knowing he was right. She'd definitely been busted staring at his penis. She just couldn't help it! It was _right there! _And the smug bastard said she couldn't embarrass him anymore. Thems were fightin' words. She would not back down from the challenge.

"Truth or dare?" she stated with an authoritative tone; her expression bespoke of no nonsense.

He gulped playfully, secretly excited by the fire in her eyes.

"Dare." The word was a challenge in its own right. He was daring _her _to have a good dare for him.

Kagome remembered that he had agreed, very specifically, that they were not allowed to dare each other to touch _each other_, a condition she had insisted on, just envisioning him making her kiss him or…other things. He had smirked before agreeing to her terms, probably thinking he'd get her back at her own game, agreeing so easily to her over specified condition, but she would beat him to the finish line when it came to taking advantage of her momentary oversight.

"I dare you to…" she began slowly, deliberately allowing her eyes to travel the length of his body yet again. He was semi-aroused, which was a good thing. He would need to get it up for her purposes.

"Masturbate…" she said at last, his eyes widening a little. "To completion…" she added, causing his eyes to widen even further. "Right now."

"Holy shit…" he muttered aloud. "I should've known not to challenge you." His tone was amused, though, a twinkle in his eye.

"What's it gonna be?" she asked. "You backing out of the dare?"

"Hell no…I just hope you brace yourself, 'cause I'm not finished with you yet." he promised, before reaching for himself with his right hand.

_This is a little too much_… he silently admitted as he worked himself, refusing to allow himself to feel embarrassed. It wasn't as if he'd never jerked off in front of a chick before, but he hadn't honestly thought that Kagome would've allowed their game to go so far. She did realize that she could throw in the towel at any time, didn't she? He had already told himself though, to never engage her in a game of chicken, and that's exactly what he'd ended up doing in a way, if he'd been thinking that she would call it quits to their game before _he _did. Still, he'd show her…quite literally he would _show _her because apparently, she liked to watch after all, and while he hadn't seen it coming he supposed she would be seeing _him _coming in only a few short minutes because he would _not _back down from the challenge.

Closing his eyes and lying down, he spread his legs a little, deciding to give his audience the best view possible. Instead of ignoring her and trying to focus on something else, he actually focused on the fact that Kagome was watching him. She was getting aroused, he could smell it, and that thought, that _scent_, egged him on even further. He imagined it was _her_ hand touching him in such a way. He pretended they'd never been playing a stupid dare game, but that they had just lost themselves naturally to their passion for one another. How could he ever have contemplated _not _dating the girl simply because she had spiritual powers? He had thought that she wouldn't be interested, but it turned out Kagome actually thought the same way he did; it made them more alike than different. She _knew_…she knew what he was. That thought alone was enough to draw him to her, since he didn't have to fear what developing deeper feelings for her would mean with regard to his 'secret'. He didn't have to worry about gathering his courage, telling her he had something important to tell her, praying she wouldn't scream and run out on him. He didn't have to worry about having his heart broken yet _again _because the woman he'd thought he could possibly make his second wife freaked out while calling _him _a freak and told him to stay the fuck away from her.

Even though he had promised Kikyou that he would allow himself to be happy again with another woman, that he wouldn't stay single and miserable for the rest of his life for her sake, finding true love a second time had proven damn near impossible, and he'd pretty much given up about fifty years ago, bouncing from casual girlfriend to casual girlfriend with no thought of commitment. Granted, he was getting tired of dating gold diggers only after him for his money, but at least with the women who were more upfront about it he didn't have to worry about their intentions because their intentions were obvious. He didn't have to wonder if they could possibly be 'the one' because he _knew _they weren't. He didn't have to contemplate what their reactions might be to learning he was a hanyou because he had absolutely no intention of telling them. True, he hadn't dated anyone in a little over three months now, having just about finally gotten fed up enough that he was contemplating staying single for a while longer to give the whole thing a rest, but he hadn't thought it'd be possible to find a girl as _real _as Kagome. Maybe the reason he'd gotten tired of the bimbos was because, subconsciously, he had sensed Kagome's pending arrival in his life? If he had been dating one of his floozies at the time it would've ruined everything. As it was, while Kagome seemed to know that he lived a fairly playboy lifestyle, that knowledge also didn't seem to bother her, or at least not significantly enough for her to find him repulsive because of it. He was sure it also helped that being half youkai meant that he was incapable of contracting or spreading STDs.

But he didn't get the feeling that Kagome was the type of woman to just sleep with a guy she found attractive with no emotional involvement, and in fact the only two people she'd ever been with had both been her boyfriend at the time. If she wanted to give 'them' a try, as she'd said, then clearly it meant that she wanted to see if they could become boyfriend and girlfriend; she didn't just want him as a casual fling. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, that was perfectly all right with him. In fact, he was glad she wanted a serious relationship. He was undeniably attracted to Kagome. He'd thought she was a looker from the first moment he'd met her, only being turned off because of her being a miko. It was obvious to the both of them that he wanted her sexually, if his impromptu erection from holding her in his lap the other morning was any indication, not to mention his hard-on from that morning upon waking up beside her, not that she knew about _that _one. But since physical desirability wasn't an issue on either of their parts, might as well try to see if something genuine existed on an emotional level, too. He knew he liked more than just her body; he liked her spunk, her fire, her sense of humor and…generally speaking as he thought about their time spent together so far, he liked _her_, plain and simple. Spiritual powers be damned; he liked her and he wanted to be with her, in more ways than one.

Feeling himself become fully aroused, he smirked at the increased spike of Kagome's own arousal, the light moan that left her lips. Was she touching herself while watching him touch himself? Slowing his movements for only a moment, he was able to catch the faint sound of friction not his own. Hot damn! He wanted to open his eyes and catch her in the act but he knew that would ruin the moment so instead he merely breathed deeply, savoring her perfume as a low groan left his own lips while his hips rose slowly, the waves of pleasure washing through him starting to grow in intensity. He knew how he liked it, so this wouldn't take too much longer. Then he'd get her back, he'd get her back good.

He was so surprised by the sensation of a hand stilling his own that he nearly lost it right then and there as his eyes flew open.

"Ka-Kagome?"

Meeting his confused gaze with her own equally confused one, the miko had no words for him at first, barely recollecting the fact that she'd moved at all. She had been watching him, a sorceress ensnared by her own creation. Watching Inuyasha writhe in pleasure, pleasure brought on by his own hands but at _her _command, she had never felt so wicked, or so wanton. Feeling an almost uncontrollable urge to touch herself grow within her core with each subtle rise of his hips, instead of torturing herself she had quickly decided to give in, figuring that even if he caught her it would have only evened the playing field. But as she'd touched herself, she had wished for the object between her legs to be something very different than her own fingers…and not her old vibrator at home, either. Inuyasha put her vibrator to _shame_. She didn't have a tape measure on her, but he had to be pushing twelve inches. Stroking herself, Kagome had wished she could experience what it would feel like to mount the delectable morsel laid out before her. Then suddenly it'd hit her. Who said she couldn't?

Like _he _would complain.

"Have sex with me." she whispered then, her tone nearly beseeching.

His eyes widened in disbelief, his body aching as his hand stilled in shock. Part of him wanted to grant her request, a very large, stiff, throbbing part of him. The rest of him couldn't find a legitimate reason to argue against it.

"We agreed not to dare each other for sex, remember?" he couldn't help teasing, refusing to give away how desperate he actually was as he smirked up at her from his place on his back.

Kagome could see right through him, though, knowing that his smart-ass teasing hadn't been a _no_.

"Fuck the game…and fuck me. I want to feel you stretch my insides." Kagome said then, her eyes sparkling with a fire he hadn't seen before.

"Damn, woman. You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

"I do all sorts of things with this mouth." she stated suggestively before suddenly lowering her mouth over him.

"Holy shit!" he cried out, digging the claws of his left hand into the ground beside him as he continued to hold himself upright for her with his right, gripping the base so that she had an unobstructed reach of as much of him as she could take.

It was over after only a few short thrusts. He didn't blow his load, the little bitch pulled away.

"Kagome…" he groaned, his head falling back with a soft thud as he stared up into the canopy of leaves overhead unseeingly.

"That's my name…" she purred as she crawled on top of him. "Although for you, I've decided I don't mind you calling me priestess, after all. You're not Kouga. He was just a boy, but you are clearly _all _man."

At those words she began lowering herself on top of him, figuring he would offer up a protest at some point in time if he actually didn't want to have sex with her. Instead, his eyes were fixated on the sight of her body engulfing his, as he bit back a moan at the feel of being enveloped in her heat. Kagome was so petite; he was honestly surprised that the whole thing fit.

"You okay?" he asked gruffly as she lowered herself fully on top of him, unable to discern if the look on her face was one of pain or of ecstasy.

"More than okay." she assured him, the crease on her forehead smoothing out as her wince morphed into a huge shit-eating grin. "Show me what it's like to be one of your girlfriends."

"Well, since you asked so nicely…"

Suddenly Kagome was the one on her back, Inuyasha's inhuman eyes peering down at her hungrily, his silvery locks falling down all around him and shielding them from the outside world like a curtain.

"You've got to _earn _the right to be on top." he purred, retracting his hips slowly before thrusting back in at a quicker pace, forcing a gasp of pleasure from the woman below him.

Inuyasha wasted no time getting down to business; the miko had given herself her own foreplay so she was already primed and ready for action. Immediately retracting his hips and pushing back in again, he set a steady pace, a rhythm that was almost leisurely for him but at the same time probably faster than either of her previous two boyfriends had been able to move, at least for an extended period of time. Rearing back on his knees, he reached down and gripped Kagome at the waist, tilting her hips up into the air as he pistoned forward. He still stood by his belief that Kagome wasn't the type to have sex without there being emotions involved, so as far as he was concerned, this act meant that she was officially his girlfriend now, and that was all right with him. He wasn't a complete emotionless bastard himself; there was no way he could ditch her after getting rescued after sharing something like _this_. He would figure out how to make it work. Fuck, he'd just move to LA for a while, problem solved. He could use the vacation away from the asshole, anyway, and that way he could also play a more active role at his branch of the company without having to torture himself always flying back and forth. In reality he probably should have already moved to Los Angeles a few years ago, with as often as he made the trip, though granted, if he'd done that then he never would've met Kagome…and she would've died.

Speaking of Kagome, the miko was seeing stars, her hands fisting the grass at her sides. Feeling him lift her rump into the air, she tried to help him gain better leverage by moving her legs to hook over his shoulders. Growling in approval of the maneuver, her lover immediately rewarded her with a harder thrust, and she almost bit her tongue on accident from the unexpected amount of pleasure that jolted through her entire body as a result. He was hitting something buried deep inside that nobody had ever touched before, not even herself with her vibrator, and she pinched her eyes closed as a building coil of pressure started making itself known from deep within her very core.

_Never…I've never cum from penetration before_… she thought vaguely as the coil wound even tighter, threatening to snap.

"I…nu…Inuya…sha…a…" she panted nearly inaudibly, in time with his thrusts.

"Yeah, that's it. Say my name, bitch." Pulling almost all of the way out he slammed home like the bang of a judge's gavel.

The coil snapped.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome cried out at the top of her lungs, light exploding behind her closed eyelids.

"Hot damn! Yeah, that's it, cum for me priestess." he said as he continued pounding into her, changing his angle slightly to bring on his own release. "Oh fuck…" he groaned as he felt his climax approach. "Kagome!" he called out as all at once it hit him, his essence spilling forth to fill Kagome's.

It was too bad he really _was _sterile in his hanyou form; if ever there was a woman he wouldn't mind having a child with, he knew it would be her. Of course, he could father a human child during the new moon, or a hanyou child if he transformed into his full-youkai self…he wondered which Kagome would prefer. That thought, as odd and unexpected as it was, washed over him with a feeling of warmth before remorse was soon to follow, as he pinched his eyes shut and lowered Kagome's rear to the ground, lowering himself to drape across her body as he held her close, keeping himself buried deep inside. He didn't want to pull away from her yet; he didn't want their oneness to end. The sudden realization that he could actually find himself seriously falling for the woman below him brought him both joy and heartache, because as inappropriate as it might seem were he to try to explain it to the girl, he was suddenly reminded of his late wife, Kikyou. He had loved her dearly, and she had been with him for such a short period of time, in youkai's terms. He would have bonded with her as his soul-mate if he could have, but humans did not have the ability to merge their souls with youkai. The spell took magic on both sides, it wasn't something the youkai partner could just _do _to their human mate. At least, with modern technology, if Kagome wanted a human child that would be something he could give her. Kikyou had been unwilling to bear a hanyou child, and at that time he had seen her logic, in not wanting to do that to a child considering how hard he knew from first hand experience it was to grow up a hanyou. Of course it had stung, but he'd loved Kikyou enough to not want to put her through the stigma his own mother had had to face. He would've gladly given her a human child, but that was long before artificial insemination techniques were available, and her fertile time had simply not matched up with his human cycle.

At least now that wouldn't be an issue, because they could just get a doctor to help Kagome turkey-baster his human seed at the appropriate time of the month. Although, something told him the woman lying below him would actually be willing to bear a hanyou child. Wouldn't that just be something? That would certainly bring their two races together…a miko birthing a hanyou. He chuckled softly a bit at the random thought, holding the woman below him even tighter, smiling against her shoulder as he felt her hug him in return. He knew he was getting way ahead of himself, of course, but he just couldn't help the feelings that were bubbling up inside of him. It shouldn't have been anything special…it was just _sex_…but yet somehow…it had changed everything.

He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't notice the slow, subtle buildup of power in the aura of the girl below him, as Kagome began running her hands along his back in a soothing fashion. It was almost as if he could feel her emotions for him, even as he barely came to grips with his own.

"I think…I think I love you."

The words left his lips without permission, wrenching a gasp from the girl below him.

...

Kagome had never felt so much pleasure in her entire life. Having sex with Inuyasha one time was like every time she'd ever had sex with Hojo and Josh combined, plus her more adventurous solo acts with her vibrator. If she were to try to fill two boxes side by side with how much pleasure she'd ever experienced, perhaps the box labeled _everything else _would come up over the halfway mark drawn on the side, but that one single encounter with Inuyasha would've had the other box instantly overflowing, bursting at the seams and spilling its contents of pleasure all over the floor.

She could certainly feel the lingering traces of their combined pleasure spilling out of her body in that moment, not that she had any intention of complaining. Once she felt strong enough to move, she might ask him to take her back to that other pond so she could bathe again, but that was only after she felt stable enough to stand without her legs collapsing out from under her. She had sighed in relief when, after lowering her rear to the ground, he'd merely settled himself against her, showing no immediate sign of wanting to pull away. He was much too warm, and the feel of his arms wrapped around her much too inviting. In that moment, Kagome found her mind wandering, wondering where things between them would go from there. They'd certainly blown her whole 'dating' formula out of the water, but for some reason, she wasn't worried. She was sure just about any shrink you asked would say that they were only attracted to each other because of some kind of syndrome or another, something that had to do with them being the only two survivors of such a horrific tragedy, not to mention their prolonged isolation afterwards. She was merely infatuated with him as her savior…or some other such bullshit. Kagome didn't need a shrink to tell her what was in her own heart and she knew that her feelings for Inuyasha were genuine. If you asked her, she wouldn't be able to tell you when her feelings for Inuyasha had developed, but she definitely didn't feel any weird awkwardness that she was sure she would've felt after sleeping with the guy had she truly only given into her hormones. She wasn't drunk, and she wasn't _loose_…she and Inuyasha were meant to be together.

That thought brought an unexpected pang to her heart. She was only human, after all. He was right…despite trying to argue that her kind were just like youkai in some ways, in the end they really were nothing more than gifted humans. She was still _mortal_.She would still grow old and die at a human rate. Even if she and Inuyasha ended up falling madly in love with each other and he whisked her away to be his princess like some kind of fairytale come true, it would only be _her _'happily ever after' if he had to watch her grow old and die just like his first wife. She knew he wasn't the only one who'd ever had to face losing a loved one, though, and even as she contemplated whether or not it would be better for him in the long run to just be with his own kind she remembered how he'd said that the only youkai women 'willing' to be with him were the ones greedy enough for the power being his mate would give them that they were able to overlook his half-breed status if it meant increasing their own power. That wasn't the kind of relationship he needed. Besides, he _was _half human, himself…and that thought brought a smile to her lips. Not that she had a problem with pureblooded youkai, but it would be foolish to deny that the fact that he was half human gave them an extra level of closeness. It made the two of them very similar in one particular way, in that she was human, except she wasn't, and he was human, except he wasn't; they were both part normal human and part _something else_. Her smile grew.

Feeling him tighten his arms around her as a soft chuckle escaped his lips, she hugged him back for all she was worth, unconcerned with whatever had made him laugh because laughter meant that he was happy. He deserved to be happy. She would give anything…_everything_…of herself, of the _world_, if it just meant seeing him happy.

_I wish I could stay with him forever_… she thought, unaware of the slow build up of power within her center at those words, so distracted as she was by the feel of his muscular back as she rubbed her hands against him. Then he spoke.

"I think…I think I love you."

She gasped, the unexpected words causing her heart to soar, as an immediate and nearly overwhelming feeling of love for him began growing in the center of her chest. Despite the seriousness of the moment, though, she couldn't help teasing him as her love-drunk mind playfully reminded her of lyrics to one of Josh's favorite songs.

"So what are you so afraid of?" she asked him gently, and he chuckled against her at her words.

Pulling back only slightly so that he could meet her smiling eyes with his own softened amber gaze, he brushed a stray lock of hair from her face before murmuring, "I suppose I could say I'm afraid that I'm unsure of a love there is no cure for…" he teased back, letting her know he knew the song, "But the truth is…I'm not afraid at all."

At those words, he did something he couldn't believe he hadn't done yet, as he lowered his mouth to hers and took her lips in a gentle yet passionate kiss. It was far from chaste, as he traced the edge of her lips with his tongue until she granted him access, as they began exploring the feel and taste of one another. He felt her examine his fangs with her tongue and he rumbled approvingly deep in his chest when not even the faintest hint of fear or even hesitation popped up in her scent as a result of such a vivid reminder that the man still lying on and _within _her was not human.

Pulling back from the kiss after a moment, Inuyasha reached up with both hands and held the sides of Kagome's face, locking his gaze with hers. Unthinkingly, he murmured the first words that he felt in his heart, not fighting the pulse of youki he felt growing within him as it felt as if his very being was trying to wrap Kagome up in himself in order to keep her safe and secure for all time.

"I truly do love you. Even though we haven't known each other for very long, we know so much _about _each other. I've never been so open with my past before, but I never felt hesitant to tell you anything and I'll continue to tell you anything you want to know about me, down to the smallest detail. I don't ever want to let you go."

"I love you too…" Kagome answered, tears gathering in her eyes as the desire to be with him became so powerful it almost felt like her very soul was reaching out to him, trying to wrap around him and pull him in within herself to keep him with her for all time. "It's so crazy how it happened, but I do believe in fate. This is why I felt such a strong urge to move to LA…the kami were guiding me, directing me onto the path that would lead me to you. _You _were my destiny all along. I've known you for less than a week and I can't even fathom my life without you in it. I don't _want _to imagine my life without you; I want to stay with you forever."

At her words, Inuyasha felt the beginning sting of tears pricking the back of his eyes, knowing that 'forever' would be over much too soon. Even so, he would not ruin the present by living in dread of the future. "I want you with me forever, too." he murmured honestly, startled when the next pulse of youki that vibrated from deep within his heart was so much stronger than the first.

Kagome gasped, feeling the same thing. She didn't understand why his youki was flaring all of a sudden, but as she felt her miko aura naturally rise in defense she immediately closed her eyes and started concentrating, focusing on how much she loved the man above her and how much she wanted to be with him. She didn't know why her reiki was continuing to pulse in time with his youki, but so far it didn't feel like her powers were trying to harm him, so that was a good thing. She'd never lost control like that before, but then again, she'd never had sex with a youkai before. She supposed it was possible some subconscious part of her mind was protesting, but that part of her mind could go fuck itself. There hadn't been anything in her teachings that had said a miko _couldn't _be with a youkai.

As Inuyasha felt Kagome's miko aura rise he felt his youki grow even stronger, and he feared his inner beast might subconsciously decide that Kagome was a threat, so since he could tell she was already doing her best to control her own powers so that they wouldn't flare he immediately closed his eyes and did the same, focusing on how much he loved Kagome, thinking about how desperately he _wanted _her. He knew his youki had originally flared because of that desire, though the strength of it had caught him off guard, and realizing that her miko aura had automatically reacted to his increase in youki immediately had him cursing mildly to himself in fear that their auras might suddenly zap each other. He didn't want to get fried while being in such _intimate _contact with her body; that would not be pleasant. So he immediately envisioned Kagome in his mind's eye, focusing on nothing but how much he loved her, how she was _not _a threat to him, and how he wouldn't resist the feel of her aura no matter how strong it got, refusing to allow his youkai side to do anything to harm her against his will.

As Kagome continued to concentrate on the same thing, she sought out the feel of his youki, inviting it within herself so that her aura would know his was not a threat, almost like letting a frightened dog smell your hand…she mentally groaned at the bad analogy. But since he _was _a dog, maybe his aura needed to get acquainted with hers? She focused then on not only inviting his youki in, but also very carefully, gently, nudging her reiki up against him, not in a harmful way, but in a warm, loving way. There was no reason why the two forces should automatically oppose each other.

Inuyasha felt Kagome's aura reach out for his own and he welcomed the sensation, wanting his youkai side to recognize her, allowing his youki to brush up against her reiki when he could tell her power was posing no immediate threat. He had always thought that youki and reiki were natural opposites, but maybe it really was true that opposites attracted. Kagome liked to think of things from a scientific level, and if their energies were polarized in anyway, well then just like magnets wouldn't it be true that opposite sides of the force really _would _be drawn towards each other? As he continued to feel his youki approach the edge of her aura without any hostile intentions he realized that must be true. It was almost like their _souls _were having sex. That thought had him chuckling a bit despite himself.

Realization of what was _really _happening came to him almost too late, but when he suddenly gasped, his eyes going wide, he stared down at the woman below him in wonder as her eyes opened to meet his gaze at the sound of his gasp.

"Inuyasha…?"

"Kagome…" he started seriously. "Do you truly want to be with me forever?"

"More than anything."

"Then focus on that, and _only _that. Don't worry about your reiki hurting me, if your aura was going to zap me by itself it would've done so already, so put that worry out of your mind. Focus _only _on the thought of never wanting to leave my side."

She was surprised by the seriousness of his gaze, of the almost desperate twinge to his words, but she didn't argue. "Okay."

Keeping her eyes open, she stared deeply into his own, focusing only on how much she wanted to stay with him always, even as her aura continued to grow in power. She let her reiki flare without worry, trusting that he had been right when he'd said it wouldn't hurt him. She felt his youki continue to grow in strength, too, and subconsciously she welcomed the sensation with open arms. Even when red started bleeding into the edges of his eyes, she didn't fear him; even when his youki grew so strong that the birds that had gotten used to him all suddenly took off out of the trees over head, she didn't flinch or even blink.

"Forever." he grumbled low, his voice different but yet somehow still the same. For some reason, she had the feeling that she needed to repeat his words, so she did.

"Forever."

"One soul."

"One soul."

The whites of his eyes turned blood red, his golden irises flickering in and out as his pupils expanded and contracted, growing so large that his irises were overpowered, an eerie glow of power from within his pupils making the dark spots shine a bright turquoise color as they morphed in shape, becoming cat-eye in appearance, truly demonic. She could hear his youki roaring in her head, his human side almost completely obscured, until finally his aura seemed to settle down, golden irises with round, turquoise pupils gazing down at her from within a sea of crimson. Purple stripes appearing on his cheeks that had been jagged at first smoothed out, becoming straight lines. She was fascinated by the changes, but she didn't fear him, continuing to focus solely on her desire to remain with him forever. She knew what he was doing, the dance he was leading her in; her heart felt like it was going to explode from how much love and happiness she was feeling.

"Our bond will last for all eternity."

"Our bond will last for all eternity."

At those words, Kagome gasped, a sudden overwhelming jolt of power coursing through her veins. The sensation was painless; in fact, she welcomed it. She hadn't known at first, hadn't been as quick as him to make the connection, but as soon as she had figured out what was going on, what he was trying to do, she had poured herself into their bond with every fiber of her being, praying it could be done. She saw, blinking up at him in wonder, as a bright pink energy danced across the surface of her skin, enveloping him, wrapping him in a blanket of her power. At that same moment, a deep turquoise light began seeping forth from his own skin, mixing and merging with her pink light as the turquoise spread itself outward and engulfed her body. Suddenly, she was no longer staring into his multi-colored gaze because his eyes were closed, his face lowering as he again pressed his lips fully against her own, and she returned the kiss eagerly, letting her own eyes slide closed as she relished in the feel of their auras merging, of his power seeping into her body even as her own power was absorbed into his. His semi-flaccid penis hardened again within her in that moment, the sensation of becoming _one _enough to arouse them both, though he held still, simply cherishing the joy of being connected. Kagome had no idea how long they stayed like that, kissing, their auras dancing back and forth as they remained intimately locked together in the missionary position, but eventually, when he finally pulled back for air, the light show was over, as Kagome blinked up into a pair of honey yellow eyes gazing down at her with more pure and unadulterated _happiness _than she had ever thought she would be blessed with witnessing. To know that she was actually the reason for his elation was nearly too much for her to bear.

"I don't believe it…" he muttered quietly after a moment, his voice also back to normal.

"Was that…what I think it was?" she asked him hesitantly.

As if finally realizing their position, he smirked down at her, pulling out of her slightly before pushing back in. The sensation nearly had her cumming again right then and there, caught off guard as she was by how much more intense the pleasure suddenly felt. It was as if she had felt _his _pleasure from the movement as well as her own.

"That answer your question?" he asked, chuckling slightly. He didn't think he would be capable of frowning for quite some time.

"What…was…that…?" she panted, shocked when as she dug her nails into his back slightly it was almost as if she could feel _that_, too. She could tell there was nothing truly scratching her own back, but it was as if she could feel the sensation in her mind.

"That…" he answered her, pulling back quickly before snapping his hips forward once more, delighting in the way she shouted out her pleasured shock as her head tilted back and her eyes pinched shut. "…Was you and me breaking just about every rule in the book. They're going to have to rewrite history thanks to us."

Smirking, Kagome removed one hand from how it was wrapped around his back and brought it to her own breast, pinching her nipple. His body jerked involuntarily as he hissed.

"We're bonded." she stated, it wasn't a question.

"You wanted me forever, now you've got me." he replied. "There's going to be _hell _to pay in the youkai world, and the human media will have a field day coming up with BS scandals for how and why you managed to nab one of the richest men on the planet."

She waved off his concerns, reminding him they had more important things to think about at the moment as she raised her hips up in a little thrust that had both of their eyes rolling back in their heads.

"There was already going to be a media stir, anyways, once they found out we were dating. Now we'll just change our story to _eloping _in Hawaii. I can handle the media, and I can handle the youkai. Let 'em say whatever they will, you and I are bonded and there's nothing anybody can do about it."

"Not even us…" he stated with no trace of hesitance or regret in his voice. "That kind of stunt is permanent and irreversible." Shaking his head, he laughed a little. "I can't believe our powers were combatable!" Pulling back, he gave another thrust, then another and another, and soon there were no more words spoken between them aside from broken gasps of each other's names.

He could feel it within him, her aura, her power. He had reiki resonating within his own being, and it was living in harmony with his youki. The human woman below him, she had a demonic aura now, he could sense it as surely as she could feel it within herself. Her reiki was still there, undisturbed by the pulse of youki flowing through her. They had merged their very souls together, something not even all youkai could successfully do. The two powers had to be combatable, the desire to become one had to be legitimate, and both auras had to be of equal enough strength that one wouldn't override the other, otherwise it would become a possession instead of a merger. They were possessing _each other, _in a way, though he didn't mind being Kagome's possession.

Feeling his release building up inside himself much faster this time around…

_Gee, I wonder why_… he snickered.

…Inuyasha didn't hesitate to grab Kagome by the waist before suddenly turning them both over, rolling back over onto his back so that she was suddenly sitting above him, blinking down at him in surprise.

"You've earned it." he told her with a fangy grin, bouncing his hips up playfully.

Smirking, Kagome immediately repositioned her legs, her feet flat on the ground so that she had more control as she quickly started rising and lowering herself over him. He kept his hands at her sides, helping to guide her movements, but she didn't need his help to know which way to grind against him when she could feel every wave of pleasure that washed over his body as she rode him. It took less than two minutes to bring them both to their second completion; this time it was the feel of his orgasm rushing through him that triggered her own, and as she felt him release, Kagome unknowingly mirrored his earlier thoughts by thinking back on his transformation and wondering if he could father his own hanyou child when in full-youkai form. If her lifespan had truly been increased to match his own, then there was no way she wanted to have a human child. She was even less human now than she used to be, and even if it labeled her a traitor or deserter among the spiritualists, nothing would make her happier than a little baby boy with his father's cute puppy ears.

He laughed, causing her to raise an eyebrow as she gazed down at him questioningly.

"Nobody's ever thought my ears were 'cute' before." he told her, causing her to smile before her eyes suddenly widened in shock.

_He…he can read my thoughts? _

_Only when you're open to it_… he told her in his mind, smirking as her eyes widened even further. _We each have the ability to keep the other out, like closing a door, but the door is always open at first whenever a new bond is formed_.

_Oh wow_… she thought in wonder, trying out trying to close him out of her mind just to see if she could do it. She could feel him knocking, for lack of a better term, at the closed door that she had to deliberately open again in order for their thoughts to flow once more. Then he did the same thing, and she could feel it, like him shutting her out, though when she knocked he opened the door back up again. In a way it was weird that it came so naturally, but then again it really wasn't, since she knew how to use her own natural powers and now this new ability simply _was _one of her natural powers. She was glad she was only telepathic with her mate, though; she didn't think she'd be able to handle reading minds generally speaking.

"Come on, we better get cleaned up." he said at last. Since he wasn't sure exactly where they were in the Pacific he couldn't be certain of the current time in California, but it was only a matter of when, not _if, _his brother would be coming for them, once Sesshoumaru got word of his disappearance. It would be best to face the music fully clothed.


	5. Happily Ever After

Chapter 5 – Happily Ever After

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After a playful skinny dip in the ocean that eventually led to them getting clean after first getting dirty a third time, Kagome and Inuyasha returned to camp both still deliriously happy over the unexpected but wholly welcomed turn of events that had led to their bonding. Inuyasha was still in shock that their auras had been compatible with each other, considering her powers were designed to neutralize his, but the way she'd explained it, if youkai and humans were compatible _physically, _able to crossbreed and produce hybrid offspring, then why wouldn't their energies be compatible on a spiritual level? He hadn't had an answer for that one, and had finally decided to stop worrying about it. It was also possible, Kagome had speculated, that the reason they were able to bond was actually because he was a hanyou, meaning a part of his soul was already human to begin with, and therefore probably more able to handle bonding with a human spirit. Hanyou were more resilient against reiki than pureblooded youkai, after all, considering if he got purified it would only turn him human instead of otherwise injuring him physically. It was almost like a safety mechanism in a way, and she hypothesized that the reason his body could house her reiki without harm was maybe because it had somehow managed to partition itself so that his youki was being kept separately from his new reiki. Of course, she wasn't part youkai, or at least she _hadn't _been, and it was also true that her body was safely housing his youki without her own reiki attacking it, but even if she was a little confused regarding all of the hows behind it, the _why _was obvious; because they'd wanted it.

Because the very nature of the spell guaranteed that both parties truly wanted the merger with their entire being or else it simply wouldn't work, there was zero doubt in either of their minds that the other wanted them as fully and as deeply as they did, and neither of them bothered questioning how such strong feelings could develop in such a short period of time. Inuyasha did believe now that he and Kagome were truly meant for one another. He hadn't just been put on her flight to save her life because the gods hadn't wanted her to die yet. Fate had basically been shouting in his ear, _'Go get your mate, stupid, before it's too late!' _In fact, he wouldn't put it past somehow sensing Kagome's eventual arrival in Los Angeles as having had something to do with why he'd originally chosen that city instead of New York to house his American branch of TaiCorp. Fate had been steering them towards one another for years, _decades _even. It was why he'd given up on consciously trying to find love a second time, just going with the flow while telling himself that if it was meant to be then it'd happen. It was why Kagome was so freakin' powerful, since her miko powers had been needed to complete the bond; it was very true that youkai could not bond with normal humans because if the magic was only one sided then there was simply nothing for their youki to grab a hold of on the other side. A youkai could _possess _a human, but doing so would suppress if not completely destroy the human's soul in the process. To complete the bond, both parties had to equally possess each other at the same time, while simultaneously opening themselves up to _being _possessed, so that they were each a part of each other. It was something done very rarely, because it required such a deep, profound level of fondness and desire for the other person. Unlike a one-sided possession, which could usually be reversed fairly easily by simply drawing out the invading spirit, during this type of a bond it really was more like the two souls had become one, and he had never heard of a way to successfully undo a soul-bond, not that anybody who'd actually gone through with it in the first place would ever _want _to undo it.

He certainly had no desire to undo his bond with Kagome, even hypothetically assuming there were actually a way; he smiled as a wave of emotion from the girl in question assured him she felt the same.

They spent the rest of the day continuing to get to know each other, stupid little things that you usually learned about a potential mate throughout the dating process. Kagome was surprised to learn that his favorite food was ramen noodles, having figured he'd have a more sophisticated palate than that. While he didn't strike her as the hoity-toity type, she'd figured his favorite food would've at least been something like stake or pork.

"I've never met a food group I didn't like…" he teased, amending, "As long as it's not too spicy." She could see how he'd be sensitive to heavily spiced foods. "But yeah, my absolute favorite is just your cheap, grocery store cup noodle. I could live off that stuff forever."

"Well then you're in luck, because there's an abundance of that stuff back at my apartment." Kagome laughed.

"That'll be the first thing to go."

She quirked a brow. "The ramen?"

"The apartment."

Shaking her head, she insisted, "I didn't want you for your money, remember."

"I know," he assured her, adding, "And that's why I'll buy you whatever you want."

Shaking her head, despite herself a little part of Kagome couldn't help doing a mental happy dance, which he of course sensed as he chuckled slightly. But Inuyasha's love for Kagome only continued to grow as she insisted she didn't need, or even _want _anything too over the top. It was definitely nice to know that she'd never have to worry about money, but she didn't need diamonds and furs and cars and custom made dresses by Italian designers. If he wanted to rescue her from her crap hole apartment she would welcome it with open arms, but that didn't mean she wanted to be moved to one of the multi-million dollar mansions that the movie stars lived in. Fortunately, Inuyasha had never much cared for all that flashy stuff, either, and he would be perfectly content with buying the two of them a normal penthouse apartment in a decent high-rise building.

Kagome conceded to the penthouse as long as there weren't too many servants to go along with it. Granted, it'd actually be nice to have somebody else _clean _the place for her, he chuckled a bit at that, but Kagome told him in that moment that she actually liked cooking at had no problem sharing the normal marriage duties between the two of them such as dishes and laundry. She still wanted to become a doctor, but a pediatrician wasn't the same as a surgeon and she was sure she'd be working fairly normal hours and would be able to fix dinner most nights. If not, well then that's where it came in handy not having to worry about wasting money on restaurants or store-bought meals.

"I'm sure you'll make a wonderful pediatrician." he told her then, earning a huge smile from the girl when she realized he had no intention of arguing with her about her dream. It wasn't about the money, it was about what she wanted to _do _with herself, and especially now that she wouldn't have to worry about the money then she could focus more fully on the career itself, on helping children and families. Hell, maybe she'd open her own practice for youkai, hanyou, spiritual humans and normies in the know. A free clinic open for everyone and anyone in the magical community.

"That's an excellent idea." he praised, having picked up on the sudden thought. "There are very few youkai run clinics that know all that much about humans, and so the occasional normal human that's married to a youkai still has to go to their own human doctor for some things, and sometimes it can get complicated when a baby is involved. There _are _other openly human and hanyou accepting youkai clinics in existence, but they're certainly rare in Japan and probably not all that common in America, either. Yours would be a welcome addition. Especially in America where free clinics are few and far between and most of the time you have to pay through the nose for medical insurance. Most demon clinics in America are no exception to that rule, they just have separate payment plans."

"The trick then becomes how to go about it without the normies hearing about it." she said. "We couldn't let a bunch of random people not in the know just walk in off the street."

"Oh that's easy, you just set up shop in a dreary office building where nobody would suspect from its outward appearance that it was a medical facility of any kind, and you station a youkai security guard in the lobby to screen everyone coming and going. Normies would just think the building was full of boring accountants in cubicles or something." he explained.

With the beginning stages of that plan set into motion at least in her mind, Kagome knew that in reality she still had to finish medical school, first. One step at a time.

They continued to pass the time the rest of the day getting to know each other even further, as they lounged by the fire on Kagome's 'nest', Inuyasha holding her in his arms tenderly. Evening came and went, and this time when Inuyasha left to fetch dinner Kagome went with him back to the shoreline, openly enjoying the ride on his back. She teased him good-naturedly as he stripped, and when he reemerged from the water bearing dinner, she made him buy his clothes back from her hostage grip with a kiss. After returning to camp, upon her insistence Inuyasha finally relented and allowed Kagome to prepare the fish herself, under accusation of him doubting her ability to do so. Thanks to their mental link, she was able to share with him her past camping adventures, including several times she and her friends had stayed near a lake where they'd caught their aquatic dinners, so despite her general lack of knowledge when it came to what species of fish was what, she did in fact know what she was doing when it came to scaling and gutting one.

That night, even though he was his hanyou self he still stayed down on the ground, sleeping with Kagome again in her nest of leaves. As distracted as he was by the presence of the woman in his arms, he did remember to cut another notch in their tree. Four nights…this was their forth night on the island. If Sesshoumaru didn't come for them in the next few days he'd have to think of something. Even though they could theoretically remain there indefinitely, so long as it rained frequently enough to maintain their water supply, he knew that the longer they were 'missing' the harder it was going to get for them and everybody working with them to hide the truth of their survival from the public eye. But the problem with trying to make a trip to land under his own power, regardless of whether he aimed for Hawaii or went back to Japan, was that with modern-day technology the normies were sure to spot him at some point, and that would only add fuel to the fire once they realized _who _he was, and how he was supposed to have died in that crash.

That thought had him remembering again that regardless of whether or not his district manager had called yet, Sesshoumaru really should have been notified by the airline by now. Weren't there people that handled that sort of thing? Maybe they couldn't reach him…? Maybe he really _had _had a last minute meeting with one of their human business partners, and so he was holed up with his staff under direct orders to not disturb him no matter _what_. Snorting, Inuyasha hoped at least _somebody _in their pack would have the balls to approach Sesshoumaru, even during one of his meetings, for something like _this_. Though then again, maybe the message hadn't gotten passed along to anybody else. Inuyasha did have it in his records that for any and all 'issues', his emergency contact was Sesshoumaru and nobody else. As much as he hated the asshole at times, there was really nobody else he trusted more than his half-brother if it were a legitimate life or death situation. So maybe the person calling on behalf of the airline hadn't left the details of the message with anybody else, asking only that Sesshoumaru contact them, and therefore nobody else had any idea how important it was for them to interrupt the daiyoukai's meeting. Hopefully, if the human authorities had yet to be able to reach Sesshoumaru, then his name had been kept out of the media. They usually did that, didn't they? Not releasing the names of all the victims until the families had been notified? He honestly didn't know, because of who he was, if it would make it a media craze or if they would actually go out of their way to keep it quiet. Sighing, the whole thing was starting to give him a headache.

_Whatever happens, I'm with you 100%… _Kagome stated softly in her mind, earning a smile from her mate as he wrapped his arms around her tighter.

Even if it had spread all over the news that he had died in that crash, Kagome had come up with the perfect excuse for why they'd been MIA after 'missing' their flight. It was fortunate that he hadn't dated anyone in over three months, because now it could later be 'leaked' that he had been having a secret affair with Kagome for a while now, an affair that up until now he'd miraculously managed to keep out of the public eye. Bumping into Kagome at the airport could have either been a genuine coincidence, or they had previously arranged to go to Los Angeles together – probably the latter since their seats were next to each other – and had simply changed their minds regarding destination at the last possible minute. Supposing they had suddenly, on a whim, decided to go to Hawaii instead, but it had been far too last minute to change their tickets and the flight they wanted to Hawaii was already sold out, then Inuyasha, in his awesome billionaire-ness, could have bribed two people on the flight to sell them their tickets. He'd never done such a thing before in real life, but he imagined that tossing a few extra thousand dollars per ticket at somebody would make most people willing to take a later flight, at least if there were enough time to stop their luggage from going on the wrong plane. He'd have to work out the details of their plan, but Sesshoumaru could help him with that, double-checking the records to ensure there actually _had been _a flight to Hawaii scheduled for only a few short hours after their flight to LA. If they'd bought the tickets off of somebody else then that would explain why there was no record in the computer system of them having changed flights, and even if their luggage had already gone onto the Los Angeles plane Inuyasha was so rich that that wouldn't have mattered, promising Kagome a whole new wardrobe when they got to Hawaii.

A horrible fiery crash wasn't something you'd want to spread around at an airport immediately after it happened with no word yet on what details had contributed to the disaster, so it definitely stood to reason that they wouldn't have known anything about it upon arriving in Honolulu…or wherever, and assuming the two of them had stayed holed up in their hotel suite then it made sense that they wouldn't have found out about it yet in order to contact their loved ones and assure them they were all right. Since Inuyasha already had somewhat of a party-boy reputation down at the LA office, the guys would probably find the most unbelievable part of the story being that he had actually gotten married, in a 'Dude, no way!' sort of mentality. He could apologize sheepishly to his manager for not calling, saying that at the _very _last minute, while already having the affair with Kagome, they had decided to actually tie the knot, which had meant having to miss his meeting, but being with the woman of his dreams had kind of not really allowed him to think of business all that much at the time. His manager would laugh and congratulate him.

True, they didn't really have to toss the marriage bit into it, but if it had only been a romantic tryst that went according to plan then he wouldn't have missed his meeting, so it was necessary to say that things had gotten a little carried away to explain why he hadn't shown up, or at the very leased called. Sesshoumaru could easily acquire a marriage certificate for the necessary date. He felt a little bad that it would mean screwing Kagome out of an actual wedding, but supposing they really had eloped last minute, then it didn't really seem too unreasonable that she'd still want to have a flashy ceremony later on.

Kagome's friends and coworkers would all just be jealous once they found out she had secretly been dating a billionaire, and they would be extremely happy for her that the gods had apparently blessed her romance by enabling it to save her life. If suddenly running away together with the man you love turned out to be directly responsible for preventing your death didn't just _scream_ destiny, then he didn't know _what _did. Her parents they could tell the truth, so then that way when the media came by they could feign mild knowledge of the affair, stating that they'd know Kagome had been seeing somebody for the last couple of months, but that they'd yet to meet the man or find out who he was because Kagome hadn't yet been ready to tell them for fear of their reaction.

_That part's true_… Kagome snickered in her mind then, just imagining the way her grandfather was going to flip out when he found out she was actually spiritually _mated _to a hanyou. Hopefully, the fact that she was mated to _Kenji Taisho _would soften the blow. She knew her mother and father would just be happy for her, not to mention happy that she was still alive, and Souta would probably blow a gasket in his excitement.

_His spiritual powers aren't as strong as mine, but he absolutely adores anything and everything that has to do with youkai, finding the whole thing 'totally awesome'… _Kagome told her mate in her mind, sharing with him how her little brother didn't harbor any more ill will towards youkai than _she _did, and how during junior high he had actually been friends with a kitsune boy named Shippou that had been in one of his classes before the kit's family had moved away.

_I can't wait to meet your family_… Inuyasha replied with a mental chuckle, unsure if he was being sarcastic or not. She laughed aloud before snuggling closer into his embrace.

Closing the mental link between them, Inuyasha figured it would probably get too distracting trying to fall asleep if they each became privy to the other's wayward half-dreams as slumber started to consume them. Whispering his goodnights, Kagome murmured her reply before allowing her mind to drift away.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

They didn't know what time it was, although the night sky was still pitch black, when the sudden _scream _of youki crashing down all around them ripped them both from their slumber. Inuyasha suddenly knew how it'd felt for Kagome the previous morning when the return of his own youkai powers after the moonless night had startled her awake. Bolting to his feet and instinctively reaching for the sword that wasn't there, he mentally swore while taking a few calming breaths, while Kagome frantically knocked on the mental link in desperation to be let into his brain as she reached for a branch and charged it with her powers while taking a defensive stance.

"It's all right…" he assured her after a second, opening the link. "That's Sesshoumaru."

Kagome immediately relaxed while letting her powers deflate, taking a step back on instinct though not recharging her reiki as a bright white ball of energy around the height of a person suddenly descended from the sky, transforming in a blinding blast of power into a rather stunning, though also incredibly intimidating looking man. A man with waist-length silver hair and pointed ears, with duel magenta stripes on each cheek and a blue crescent moon on his forehead. His youki was so unbelievably powerful that Kagome found she actually had to concentrate in order to see his _glamour_, that of your average Japanese businessman, though the waist-length hair was still there, only black. She knew she knew absolutely nothing about this man, but she couldn't help noticing the rather unkempt quality to his hair, not to mention his business attire, his light gray Gucci suit sporting more than a few wrinkles, his necktie hanging precariously loose. Inuyasha had described his elder brother as pompous and pristine, but under the circumstances, Kagome supposed his current appearance was understandable. He completely ignored her presence, at least at first, and even though his expression did not visibly change, she somehow got the distinct impression that his golden eyes looked relieved as they gazed Inuyasha's way.

Inuyasha had a thousand and one snarky remarks on the tip of his tongue, everything from 'It's about damn time' to 'You look like hell', but he also hadn't missed the noticeable relief in Sesshoumaru's gaze, and in that moment he decided to check his attitude at the door.

"Aniki…" he greeted quietly, allowing his own relief to show through. "It's good to see you."

"Likewise." Sesshoumaru replied in his usual monotone, though the single word to Inuyasha's ears was like his brother shouting his joy from the rooftops.

It was then that Sesshoumaru inhaled, his eyes going noticeably wider. Finally taking a moment to glance Kagome's way, his eyes immediately narrowed into dangerous slits, and snapping his gaze back to his younger brother, the daiyoukai demanded, in French, "Explain."

Taken aback, Inuyasha figured Sesshoumaru wanted theirs to be a private conversation. Apologizing to Kagome in his mind for seeming rude, he knew not to defy his brother in this and closed the link before replying in French, "You might want to have a seat, this is going to take a while."

Remaining silent and motionless, Inuyasha rolled his eyes, realizing his brother intended to stay standing right where he was, so he launched into a somewhat edited version of everything that had happened both before and after the crash. There was no point in trying to pretend that nothing had happened between he and Kagome since Sesshoumaru could obviously both smell their intimacy as well as sense their bonded auras, but he quickly decided that an unspoken truth was not a lie, leaving mention of _exactly _how they'd ended up having sex out of the picture. He did admit that the bond had originally begun by surprise, from both of their auras rising up on their own from their unknowingly shared desire to be together, neither of them aware on a conscious level that the bond would even be possible. He then admitted that, as soon as it'd dawned him what was happening, he had immediately gone forward with it, temporarily only thinking with his emotions, consequences be damned.

"I apologize as your beta for making such a drastic alteration to the foundation of our pack without your foreknowledge or consent." Inuyasha stated formally, having learned long ago that there was a time and a place to drop the spoiled brat routine and concede to his elder brother as alpha. "But…" he added then, asserting just a tiny bit of dominance to show that he wouldn't be pushed around when it came to his private life. "What's done is done, and I do not nor will I ever regret my decision to mate Kagome. She is my chosen."

Kagome had no idea what Inuyasha was saying; any hope of actually, neatly getting to backhandedly learn French from reading his mind during his speech had been taken away by him closing the link between them after a brief apology, not that she blamed him, figuring that Sesshoumaru would have probably been able to sense it if the link had remained open. The reason for the language switch was obvious, though Kagome had to admit, even knowing already that her mate and for all intents and purposes husband was fluent in multiple languages, it was still rather impressive to hear him speak French so flawlessly. The only word she recognized so far was her own name, though it didn't take a genius to figure out what Inuyasha was telling his brother, even if he hadn't addressed her by name during his explanation. She waited with bated breath for the daiyoukai's reaction.

Gazing Kagome's way after Inuyasha's final statement, Sesshoumaru remained silent a moment longer, his eyes seemingly piercing her very soul as he apparently took a moment to assess the girl. Recognizing this, Kagome squared her shoulders, refusing to back down in the face of his obvious scrutiny, raising a single eyebrow in silent challenge after his gaze lingered much longer than what she personally felt was necessary. Was he trying to wear her down by making her sweat it out? She might not be able to beat him in a _blinking_ contest, but aside from that minor detail she could hold her own in a staring contest without difficulty. He wouldn't intimidate her. If she could handle Inuyasha she could handle his brother.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, though it had probably been less than a minute, the daiyoukai spoke, in Japanese.

"You do not fear me." It was stated as fact.

Kagome smiled, immediately relaxing her posture.

"I do not." she replied honestly before bowing respectfully. She didn't _fear _him, but that didn't mean she didn't or wouldn't respect him. He was Inuyasha's elder brother, after all.

He turned back to Inuyasha.

"This complicates matters."

"We've already got our story all figured out, I just need your help with the details." Inuyasha said then.

After explaining, in Japanese, the story that he and Kagome had come up with, Sesshoumaru did have to admit that it was a plausible scenario. Fortunately, Inuyasha's supposed presence onboard that airplane had _not _been leaked to the media. He had been contacted by the human authorities earlier that morning, informing him of the tragedy they had been trying to reach him about for the last three days while he had been unattainable while playing host to one of their more important human business partners. Immediately operating under the presumption that his younger brother, half human though he may be, would not have died in such a crash, he had prevented the complication of the media's hunger for such a story before it had even begun by informing the authorities and the airline that there had been a mistake, and that while his brother had purchased a ticket under his own name it had been on behalf of an unfortunate acquaintance whose identity would remain anonymous, and that the airlines were _not _to release that his brother had been on board, because he had not been, and that the second in command of TaiCorp was in fact alive and well.

His second order of business had been to call their Los Angeles district manager, who had immediately asked Sesshoumaru upon receiving the late evening call if Inuyasha was all right before the daiyoukai had even had to worry about how to dance around inquiring whether or not the hanyou had made his meeting. He'd immediately assured his employee that everything was fine, and that Inuyasha had had other matters he'd needed to attend to last minute and would reschedule their meeting as soon as possible. Having left it so vague, the story he and his…wife…had come up with would fit perfectly. It stood to reason that he would've needed to go to the airport to collect the ticket that he had purchased in his own name on behalf of their 'anonymous companion' who had unfortunately perished in the crash, so to keep their stories straight with what he had already told the authorities, Inuyasha could state that while at the airport and also secretly seeing Kagome off, having known she was on that flight, he had then at the last minute convinced her to delay her departure and go with him to Hawaii. The excuse the hanyou and miko had come up with for why there was no computer records of them purchasing those tickets was plausible enough, and Sesshoumaru knew they had enough friends in the hotel industry to verify the 'rumor' that Inuyasha and Kagome had spent the last four nights at whichever hotel they decided to go with.

Glancing Kagome's way again, Sesshoumaru did something he _never _did in that moment, he sighed.

"I could spend the next five centuries lecturing you about how irresponsible your decision to mate a miko had been, but that would not alter the fact that your bonding was successful. I must say, I was unaware such a thing could be accomplished."

"So were we." Inuyasha admitted.

"Until you sensed its beginning and decided to go through with it." Sesshoumaru added dryly.

"Look," Inuyasha stated in a surprisingly soft tone of voice. "You can blame it on my human emotions all you want, and hell, you're probably right, but what's done is done."

"Indeed."

"I love Kagome." he insisted, receiving a stern glare from slightly narrowed eyes.

"A fleeting sentiment I have heard before."

It was Inuyasha's turn to narrow _his _eyes.

"Leave Kikyou out of this. I know you didn't like her, but she never did anything to you or the family. She was loyal till the day she died."

Sesshoumaru was mildly surprised by Inuyasha's words, once again shifting his gaze Kagome's way for a split second.

"What?" the miko chimed sarcastically. "Were you expecting me to go all human-emotional and ask 'Who's Kikyou' or something? I know all about Inuyasha's late wife from last century. Believe it or not, your brother actually told me a lot about himself, so my feelings aren't shallow or misguided. I know very well the man I've fallen in love with."

"Half-brother." Sesshoumaru corrected.

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

Smirking, Sesshoumaru turned back to the hanyou and admitted, "Perhaps you two are perfect for each other, after all. She certainly seems to share some of your…less desirable qualities."

Kagome quirked a brow Inuyasha's way at that.

"He means we're both overly emotional and quick to have sharp tongues." he translated, chuckling a bit despite himself.

Sesshoumaru didn't need to add that after he'd gotten off the phone with Los Angeles and made a couple of other calls he had immediately fled in an attempt to retrace the plane's flight, finding first the scene of the crash and spending some time scouring the ocean before expanding his search and finally locating them on the tiny island. From his rumpled business attire, it was obvious to Inuyasha that Sesshoumaru had left straight from work, and hadn't been back since. He found it a tremendous compliment, in a way, that the daiyoukai had immediately believed that he must have survived the crash, giving testament to his strength as a daiyoukai, himself, despite being half human. The truth was Inuyasha was fairly fire resistant, and while blunt force trauma could theoretically render him unconscious, had he been injured in the crash and perhaps in danger of drowning, it was much more likely that he would have transformed, especially since he didn't have Tetsusaiga, which would have immediately reawakened him and healed any injuries he could have possibly sustained. The only way he really could have died in the crash would be if he had been decapitated. He had been both stabbed and shot before, including being run clean through the middle and shot in the heart. While it took him longer to heal from more severe injuries because of his human blood, he really did seem to be _nearly _as indestructible as a full-blooded youkai when it came to surviving bodily injury. If he could survive being thrown into the side of a mountain so hard that his body indented the earth in an Inuyasha-shaped crater over one foot deep, then he could survive a plane crash in the ocean, and that had just been during one of their arguments back when he'd been a snot-nosed, bratty adolescent.

Yes, Sesshoumaru had been fairly certain that his half-brother had survived the crash, and presuming he was conscious and relatively unharmed, he had also believed that the hanyou would successfully remain hidden from any and all human rescue crews that had been scouring the area to recover bodies. He hadn't been careless enough to dismiss the possibility altogether of Inuyasha having died in the crash, though, as unlikely a scenario as it was, and just on the off-chance he'd planted some trusted youkai officials to examine the remains of everybody recovered from the flight, though he had not told them whom they were looking for. Telling them only that he suspected a hanyou might have possibly been on board from an anonymous tip – a physical necessity for _any_ hanyou that needed to fly out of the country – they were told only to double-check that all of the deceased were human. They were under direct orders to _immediately _send somebody to his location to inform him of the news if a non-human were found, merely under the pretence of needing to keep their secret under wraps as a united species in hiding, but as time had ticked by and he'd yet to hear from anyone _or _find his brother, alive or otherwise, Sesshoumaru had grown contradictively more relieved and worried with every passing minute. He would probably not be able to keep it a secret from the rest of the inu clan that Inuyasha had been the hanyou in question, but so long as their story was convincing enough for the human world he presently didn't care if word got out within youkai society. In the grand scale of things, from a youkai's point of view, this was truly no more catastrophic than Inuyasha's car having broken down and him having to go and retrieve him. Yes, it was tragic that all of those humans had lost their lives, but that had not been Inuyasha's doing, and besides, they were mortal; it had only been a matter of time before they all would have died anyway by some other means.

When upon expanding his search he had finally located his brother's aura coming from the tiny island, an energy signature that had been weaker in power than during full wakefulness because Inuyasha had been asleep at the time, Sesshoumaru had been so overcome with relief that he hadn't honestly given much thought to the miko's presence. He had been fully aware of the human woman standing beside his brother, of course, but easily sensing her reiki he had brushed off her presence as somebody his brother must have rescued during the crash. It honestly didn't surprise him that Inuyasha would do such a thing, considering his general compassion for humans as a whole, and despite their instinctual unease when it came to reiki users, the fact that she was a spiritualist definitely meant that Inuyasha had been able to rescue her without the added repercussions of the act having caused him to reveal himself to somebody not previously in the know. He had thought it a kind gesture, an act of a Good Samaritan; not something most pureblooded youkai would have probably bothered to do, although he couldn't even say with conviction that he himself would have allowed a miko to die in the crash if he'd had the opportunity to save her. Good deeds paved the way to good public relations, after all. But upon finally catching a whiff of their combined scents, of the lingering pungent twang of his brother's seed coming from within the miko's body, not to mention the unmistakable _mixing _of their auras, Sesshoumaru had, for the first time, been at a complete loss.

Demanding an explanation had been the only thing he could think of to say, initially, and when he had stated that her presence complicated matters, he couldn't even be sure if he'd been referring to her presence in general, in that it would be inconvenient to have to come up with a way to explain her disappearance while reassuring the public that she had not actually died in that crash, or if he'd been referring to her bonding with Inuyasha. After all, they were two rather separate issues. 'Leaking' a story to the media that Inuyasha had whisked his secret lover away for a few days, unknowingly saving her life in the process, and coming forward and announcing their relationship as a means of clearing the mistaken record of her death was a perfectly plausible scenario for the human world. They would eat it hook, line and sinker, and spout nonsense of fairytales and destiny. He would've been faced with having to create a similar story regardless of her true relationship with Inuyasha in order for her to reenter the human world, so the fact that their romance was actually real, now, didn't really hurt anything and probably actually helped matters, from that side of things at least. But how was he supposed to go on as the head of the inu clan as if nothing had happened with a miko as a permanent, bonded soul-mate to his second in command? There would have to be public introductions, most of which would probably feel more like interrogations; he would let his brother handle the honors of digging himself out of his own hole, in that regard.

Still, despite everything, he was glad to see Inuyasha alive. Though he was loath to admit it, the hanyou _was _family. The only direct family he had…though he supposed as he thought about it that _that _wasn't true any longer. The miko was family as well, now. Her offspring, even if they should be purely human, would be related to him by blood. That change would either help bring the youkai and spiritualists closer together, or act as a giant slap in the face to both sides with the youkai considering Inuyasha a traitor and likewise the spiritualists disowning Kagome. He honestly didn't care what the spiritualists thought of the girl, though any potential troublemakers on his side would have to be dealt with quickly to reassert their family dominance. Not a task he was looking forward to.

"Sesshoumaru-sama…" said miko spoke up in that moment, pulling the daiyoukai from his thoughts while earning a frown from her mate, who didn't like the idea of her sucking up to his brother. But Kagome had easily been able to sense the troubled thoughts running through her brother-in-law's mind, and her ability to sense them had nothing to do with her bond with Inuyasha or her powers as a miko. Sesshoumaru might usually act all tough and emotionless, but in that moment, at least to her, the worry and stress he was feeling was as plain to her as the moon on his face.

Clearing her throat, she glanced Inuyasha's way for a moment with a loving smile before focusing her gaze on the daiyoukai once more. "I mean no disrespect to you or your family." she began, wanting to be as respectful as possible. "I truly do have feelings for Inuyasha, and as his bonded mate, I have every intention of remaining loyal to _him _and _your _people for the rest of my newly extended life. I am sure you must know that in order for the bond to form the feelings of both people have to be genuine, and the spiritualists know this as well. You can rest assured that I am not a double agent, and they will not think me kidnapped, not that I was even theirs to steal in the first place. I may be a miko, but I'm an independent. My life belongs to me. I don't work for the spiritual sect and I never have, and if they don't like me being mated to your brother then quite frankly they can kiss my ass. I love Inuyasha and that's all there is to it. " she finished, smirking her mate's way as he laughed.

"Hn." Sesshoumaru murmured noncommittally.

Turning back to his brother, he said in Japanese, so as not to hide his words from the girl, "I do not approve of your tendency to act without thinking, but your transgression in this matter is forgiven. Your actions cannot be undone, so there is little to accomplish by scolding your lack of judgment. Whether or not you have chosen wisely is yet to be seen, but it is true that she is your mate regardless of my personal feelings on the matter. She will be protected by the pack."

Inuyasha sighed, visibly relieved. "Thank you."

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

The trio wasted no time getting down to business. Sesshoumaru could expand his youki and carry others with him, though to do so in that instance would be dangerous as they would be risking the detection of Kagome and Inuyasha as they approached land, the pair obviously not able to transform themselves into balls of energy as he could, so the daiyoukai left his younger sibling and his new bride on the tiny unnamed island while he went to Hawaii to begin preparations. Since that was where their story was going to state that Inuyasha had taken Kagome, then that needed to be where they would be found.

Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha were well known among the Japanese youkai in Hawaii, and he had a few trusted individuals in mind that owed him some favors. The elder Taisho brother returned for the hanyou and miko around midday with a set of borrowed concealment charms that produced invisibility cloaks, allowing the two corporeal beings to fly with him without being spotted. With the glare of the sun and dismissals of tricks of the light as his cover, Sesshoumaru flew them all the way into the open balcony window of a high-rise penthouse hotel suite that, according to the computer system, had been reserved by Kenji Taishoaround five minutes before takeoff of a flight to Hawaii that had been scheduled for departure a mere half hour after their Los Angeles flight. Kagome immediately contacted her family via Sesshoumaru's secure cell phone, informing her tearful mother that she was still alive and that she had a _lot _that she needed to tell them and would be calling back shortly. The second thing she did was jump in the shower, grateful that her new brother-in-law had provided modest clothing for her to wear. Kagome wasn't going to change who she was or how she dressed just because she was married to a billionaire. Or _would _be…though she supposed the story would have to state that they were already married as of that date. Sesshoumaru had said the backdated marriage license would be arriving for them to sign shortly.

The story played out pretty much according to plan. Inuyasha did a very convincing job on the phone when he finally spoke with his Los Angeles manager himself, pretending that he had asked his brother 'Kenichi' to call the previous day in apology for having missed the meeting. He told him the story as rehearsed, dropping the bomb that he and his secret girlfriend had gotten carried away during their rendezvous, actually tying the knot, and that he couldn't be happier. His manager had been disbelieving, but in that friendly, good buddy, 'Dude, no way!' type of way that Inuyasha had known would be his reaction, congratulating his CEO before telling him that everything was running smoothly at the company and to enjoy his honeymoon before worrying about business.

Fortunately, not every one of Kagome's friends in LA paid all that much attention to the news, and those who had heard about the tragedy of the plane crash had not immediately put two and two together because nobody had known exactly when Kagome's flight home had been. They'd known only that she was on vacation back in Japan, and since that day was actually the last scheduled day of her vacation she had not yet been 'missing' for those who hadn't been privy to a list of the people on board the doomed flight. A few of her coworkers had begun to worry in the back of their minds if she could have possibly been on board, a concern that had grown when calls to her cell had repeatedly gone straight to voicemail, but Kagome put everyone's minds at ease when she called into work to apologize that she wasn't going to be back to work on time the next day because her vacation plans had changed. Kagome had more honor than to simply quit her job outright and did plan on giving her official two-week notice so that they could find a replacement, but that wasn't something she felt needed to be discussed over the phone, merely calling out for the next day without concern of the tiny ding on her attendance record. Getting back on the phone with her family next, she filled them in as much as she felt she could over the phone, wanting to leave _certain _things for when she could see them in person, though for the sake of her family possibly getting hounded by the media she did have to come clean with regard to _most _of what had happened, in a highly edited manner, of course. She told her mother that there had been a 'special' person on board who had saved her life, confessing with a cringe while pulling the phone away from her ear that that special person was the second in command of TaiCorp. After her mother was done squealing like a little girl, the elder Higurashi woman calmed down enough for Kagome to explain how, in order to explain her 'disappearance' presuming she'd missed her flight, that the story had to go that she and Kenji were in a secret relationship.

"That's not really a lie, though…at least not any more. I promise I'll explain more as soon as I can come back out there again, but Mama…we're married." she told her mom briefly, warning her that they were bound to get hounded by the media because of it, while also assuring her briefly that their feelings were real and that it wasn't a sham marriage.

While the news hadn't been as big about it in Los Angeles as far as who, specifically, had died in that crash, the names – all but _one _–had by that time been released and available on the Internet for anyone who cared to look it up. Her family had been officially contacted about her demise later the same morning of the crash, and all of her friends and extended family back in Tokyo had all thought that she'd perished. It was necessary to get the rumor mill turning as quickly as possible. Her family was instructed to feign only a faint knowledge of the fact that she'd been dating somebody whom they'd been yet to meet or learn much about, Kagome admittedly keeping her blossoming romance a secret from her family for fear of their reactions. It would have been too unbelievable to assume they had suspected nothing if she'd tried to keep it a secret from them entirely, so it was better and more convincing all the way around for her family to instead 'admit' they'd known there'd been a boyfriend. She did live in Los Angeles, after all, so it stood to reason that they wouldn't have ever met the guy, assuming from her lack of details that he lived there too instead of actually traveling back and forth. She supposedly had also not told them that at the last minute she'd ended up going with him to Hawaii instead of back to Los Angeles, to keep her parents' reactions genuine when they had first been informed of her presumed death, and so only now hearing about the crash after finally crawling out of their hotel room Kagome had called home in a panic to inform her family that she was in fact still alive and well. Inuyasha, or 'Kenji' as she was practicing getting in the habit of calling him for fear of having a slipup while out in public, knew that word of his new wife's tragic death had to be corrected, so he made a personal call to the people in charge of such things to inform them of the error and to void the file of her death certificate, knowing full well that that alone was all that was needed to get the stories flying.

Kagome and Inuyasha left their hotel the following morning with a decent sized group of reporters and photographers in their faces. Kagome's reaction was fairly genuine, since she'd never before experienced such a thing, so her shock and disorientation were not faked. No matter how much she'd thought she'd prepared herself, there was truly no way to know what that sort of thing was like until you experienced it for yourself. The only part of her reaction she had to cover up was the secret relief she felt that their plan had been successful. Over and over again in countless interviews she told the same story, that she'd had no idea her plane had gone down, and how shocked she'd felt when she'd found out, immediately knowing that she had to call home to let her family know she was all right. She 'hadn't meant' for her relationship with Kenji Taisho to explode to such proportions, media wise, but the fact that him whisking her away had coincidentally ended up saving her life just screamed destiny as far as she was concerned. For Inuyasha's side of things, he stated in an official interview that he and Kagome had been dating for the last two months, and that he had wanted to shield her from the spotlight solely for the simple fact that she was a normal girl, and he hadn't wanted to frighten her away. You can't control who you fall in love with, and the fact that she was nobody famous didn't matter to him. They'd met purely by chance…part of the story they had worked out in their spare time, each telling the same tale of how he'd gone into the store she worked at in LA and she'd helped him. He'd realized she had no idea who he was, and it was so refreshing getting treated like a normal man that he'd had to go back and see her again. He'd ended up asking her out on a date, which led to two and three, and she didn't find out who he was until after the third date, when she'd expressed more amazement that _he_ was interested in _her_, not suddenly turning into a gold digger. He'd known he'd found a keeper then, and so he'd continued to see her every time he was in LA.

Fortunately, because he _usually _took his private jet, there were no public records to forge for how often he'd truly traveled back and forth or how long he'd stayed during each visit.

The story continued to go that they had been together in Japan during her recent return home, and he had intended to see her off at the airport but at the last minute had decided to whisk her away to Hawaii to enjoy the last few days of her vacation alone together in paradise. Getting married had happened quite at the last minute, quite unexpectedly, but he did not regret his decision. It was a fairytale come true as far as the human media was concerned, and Kagome quickly became dubbed a modern-day princess, her Prince Charming having come in to sweep her off her feet. The fact that he'd unknowingly at the time also ended up saving her life just made it that much more of a fairytale, the prince saving his true love from certain doom, and because Kagome was from a shrine family, she commented in a public statement that she believed the kami had had a hand in it, both wishing to save her from death as well as blessing their union.

The possible inconsistent curiosity that was Kenji Taisho purchasing a ticket for that flight himself was swept under the rug by law enforcement as an unrelated incident that the Taisho family did not wish to discuss out of respect for the individual who had perished, and it was never brought up again and remained completely out of the media. It was declared, however, that after realizing how close he'd come to losing Kagome, Kenji's heart went out to the families of everyone else who had not been so lucky, and TaiCorp made official donations to the survivors of everyone who had died. Secretly, Inuyasha felt guilty that he had not been able to save them, but since there was no way he was responsible for their deaths, either in reality or in the public eye, Sesshoumaru did not discourage Inuyasha from going forward with the small donations that were not only tax deductible but would ultimately improve their image in the public eye.

Inuyasha stayed with Kagome for the two weeks she wanted to finish up work at her job, which primarily consisted of training her replacement; another girl they just transferred from within. Everyone was far too giddy asking Kagome countless questions about her exposed love life to focus on work, but the miko had insisted on doing things by the book, as far as leaving her place of employment only after proper notice had been given, and Inuyasha respected that about her. He spent the time apartment shopping and ended up finding the perfect place to buy for he and Kagome to make their new home since the girl still wanted to live in LA. It really was more convenient for him to be in the states, anyway, since that was where his office was located.

Going back to Tokyo after she was through with her job, Kagome had a tearful reunion with her family. Up until that moment they'd known only that Kenji Taisho was apparently a youkai – not necessarily surprising when they considered the family history of that company and how far back the Taisho name truly dated – but they had not known that Inuyasha was actually a hanyou, or that he and Kagome were soul-bonded. As predicted, Souta completely flipped out, in a good way, asking Kagome if she could do any cool youkai magic tricks now, while her mother and father primarily expressed their relief that she was alive and well. Her grandfather eyed Inuyasha skeptically, the hanyou having removed his concealment charm while in their home so as not to seem as though he was hiding anything, and finally the old man told him that even he knew his feelings for Kagome had to be real in order for the bond to have taken.

"Don't you dare ever even _think _about hurting my grandbaby's feelings or you won't need to wear a concealment charm any more, you got that?" her Jii-chan threatened…an empty threat since Inuyasha could easily sense that he had nowhere near the amount of power necessary to turn him human, even temporarily, though he nodded his consent nonetheless.

Of course, it wasn't surprising that Kagome's family wanted her to have an official Shinto wedding, but with only a small amount of persuasion on Inuyasha's part they were convinced to wait a few months. The negative gossip was already starting to circulate that Kagome must have gotten pregnant, that she must just have been after him for his money even if she was pretending otherwise, so the easiest way to clear up that tabloid rumor was to wait until more than enough time had passed to reveal that she was still just as skinny as ever before going forward with a public wedding ceremony in Japan. There would always be negative media whenever a story such as theirs first breaks out, but Kagome could handle it, and she spent the next week in Japan meeting with youkai officials. There was a whole other world besides the human story of the modern-day princess, after all, and so it was finally time for introductions to be made on Inuyasha's side of the family.

The pack had already known, thanks to the human media, that Inuyasha had gotten married, and presumably to a human miko considering she was reportedly from a shrine family, but it was not until she actually stepped foot in the same room as the youkai elders that they realized the girl was soul-bonded to Inuyasha. That immediately caused an entirely different type of stir. Fortunately, nobody was foolish enough to chastise Inuyasha on his choice of mate; he was certainly not the first hanyou to have ever married a human. It was the simple fact that they were bonded that caused the most stir, nobody having realized that youki and reiki would or could be compatible in such a way. The discovery unfortunately did not open any doors for youkai married to normal humans who longed to bond with them because reiki was something you simply had to be born with, and normal humans could not acquire the force needed to bond with their youkai partners, but it did look as though her union with Inuyasha would pave the way towards more compliance between the races rather than labeling each of them a traitor to their own kind.

Kagome also complied with meeting with the top officials of the local spiritual sect, allowing them to 'scan' her – not with any type of machine, but with their minds – confirming for themselves that she did possess youki within her system that was not affected in any way by her natural reiki. She could still bring her reiki forward, charging an object with her power. Having her fire a bow in demonstration, Kagome missed the target a few times, and never got near the bull's-eye, but there was little doubt as to the strength of her purifying arrows. The greater shock came to everyone when she next tried to bring up her youki and found that she could do that as well, though she couldn't use it to the same extent that her husband and mate could, expelling blades of energy from his very fingertips. Perhaps with practice. Inuyasha, who had voluntarily gone with her for fear of what the spirituals might want Kagome to do, also demonstrated his own ability to channel reiki, not to the same levels that Kagome could, but strong enough that they could sense it within him. There was speculation that during his next human cycle, his reiki would remain and therefore turn him into a spiritual human himself, able to see through concealment charms and utilize other reiki abilities without his youki functioning as a hindrance. It could be a safety mechanism within his body of not wanting to risk harming his youki that prevented the reiki within him from rising to full strength while in his hanyou form. He refused to let them know when his human time was, but did concede to reporting back at a later date with whatever information he'd discovered at that time. So far the sect had nothing but theories, they would require further testing to make any kind of determinations, but Kagome actually liked the idea of being a trail blazer in this regard and complied with their request to meet once a year for monitoring.

Once rumors of her pregnancy died down and would not taint her wedding day, Inuyasha began working with her family to plan the perfect wedding. It would be a traditional Shinto ceremony, but they would spare no expense when it came to their robes, her wig and accessories, the sake or the food. He did agree to have the wedding at her family shrine, not wanting to take any of Kagome's childhood dreams away from her. Security was tight but with some strategically placed holes, so a few photos of the wedding were leaked to the media. It was another first in the youkai underground, since no youkai orhanyou until Inuyasha had ever participated in a _Shinto _wedding ceremony, considering part of the ceremony involved being spiritually purified by a houshi, but under the circumstances, the houshi who performed the ceremony simply held back use of any of his actual powers, going through the motions for the sake of the ceremony without risk of injuring the groom. Nobody believed the kami would be angered by their union, because if that were true then the bond should not have been permitted to form in the first place. Even the purist of the spiritualists had to admit that Inuyasha had not 'corrupted' Kagome. Back a few hundred years ago they might have believed that she had somehow or another been manipulated or possessed by him, but in today's world there was a combination of spirituality and science at work in their philosophy, and the science end of things simply dictated that Kagome _had _to have been a willing participant. If it were not for Inuyasha, Kagome would be dead. That was a truth no matter which version of the story they were aware of, so it was clear in everyone's minds that the kami had indeed blessed their union.

Deciding to wait a few years before having children, so that she could more fully focus on her career, Kagome went back with Inuyasha to their new penthouse in Los Angeles and immediately hit the books to finish medical school. After acquiring her license, she got hired on as a normal pediatrician at a normal human clinic, and decided to work there for a few years to pick up some experience while working in secret with her husband to get her own facility commissioned. That would take time, because whenever it came to anything in the youkai underground, slow and steady won the race. They couldn't risk tipping off the human media that Kenji Taisho himself was somehow involved, so it required going through some backward channels to get other youkai owned and operated companies on board to help out. Eventually, though, Kagome saw her plan start to come to fruition. Slipping out of the public eye under the ruse of becoming a private doctor for the wealthy, Kagome kept her guise for the human world honest by indeed making the occasional house call to families so 'important' the doctor was hired to go to them instead of them bringing their children to the doctor. It wasn't as if she were going to become racist against 'normal' humans, after all, and being the wife of a billionaire did sort of put her at a higher level in the medical world than the nurses and doctors working fourteen-hour shifts in overcrowded hospitals. Her new career style left her open with plenty of time to work in her secret clinic which got set up in a smaller town within LA County.

It was true that hers wasn't the only secret youkai clinic in Southern California, but it was also true that hers was the only _free _youkai clinic in Southern California. It was quite the switch off to go from treating spoiled rich human children in their own bedrooms in their families' multi-million dollar mansions to treating youkai and hanyou children whose families were on welfare, but she was happy with her career choice. Being a private doctor was what she did on occasion so that the public eye wouldn't wonder where she'd disappeared to or what she was doing with herself, but her secret free clinic was truly her passion. While she couldn't be there personally every single day of the week, she hired herself a staff of competent youkai, hanyou and normie-in-the-know doctors whose respect for her as their boss was as strong as their desire to help less fortunate families who could not, for obvious reasons, go to the _human _free clinics. While no youkai hospital would turn somebody away, just like in the human world the families would receive a medical bill afterwards, but such was not the case with Kagome's clinic. They accepted donations, not that they truly needed anyway, but families who could not afford to pay were never issued a bill.

They weren't really a hospital, and they couldn't perform more intricate surgical procedures, but it was also true that in the case of pureblooded youkai, and in most cases with hanyou as well, surgery was not even needed to treat most injuries because their bodies would eventually heal themselves, so in addition to normal check-ups and issuing out youkai-grade prescriptions, Kagome's clinic also provided hospital _beds _for the injured to rest until fully recovered if they had nowhere else to go.

Though it was rare, they also received the occasional spiritualist patient, if it were the same type of situation where the miko or houshi's family was poor and could not afford medical insurance or a payment plan at any of the spiritual-run clinics. Kagome's was open to everybody 'in the know' regardless to their personal species, and being a miko herself she had more than a fair share of knowledge when it came to dealing with what it meant to grow up different from everybody else. She would always make sure to be there to personally see the spiritual children as they came in for anything as routine as a chickenpox vaccination to as serious as a broken bone, knowing the kids found comfort in having someone they could openly talk to about the world they lived in. Especially if being a spiritualist were somehow related to their accident, like a fight at school with a youkai child. They could actually tell her the truth when she asked what'd happened.

The world didn't change overnight, not that Kagome had expected it to, with regard to the views youkai and spiritualists had for each other, but as she and Inuyasha continued to check in with both the American and Japanese branches of the spiritual sect on an annual basis so that their soul-bond could be examined, the proof was in the pudding, as the saying went, as to the continual compatibility the couple shared both on a spiritual as well as physical level. They really _were _more alike than different, fundamentally. Two sides of the same coin, as Inuyasha had thought about it that day on the airplane that seemed so far away now. Word had eventually spread throughout the inu clan of Sesshoumaru having been frantically looking for a hanyou survivor from that crash, and so just about everyone in the Japanese youkai underground new the truth of Inuyasha's relationship with Kagome, at least to a point, in that they had in fact been on board that flight and that he had saved her life during the crash itself, but most of them did not know that he had actually met the girl on that flight. Most believed the story that they had already been dating, believing the cover of going to Hawaii had only been fabricated to prevent the human world from learning of how they had actually survived the crash. Most also believed that the bonding had taken place on the island, thus requiring the necessity of saying they had eloped, but that the strong feelings that had arisen between them to trigger the bond had been brought on by sharing together such a tragic experience in which he had almost lost her due to her mortality. It wasn't really anybody's business that they hadn't known each other at all and had fallen in love so quickly, and in the years that followed their love for one another stayed genuine.

When it finally came time to start a family of their own Kagome didn't hesitate to make love to her husband in his full-youkai form to produce a hanyou child, and that, they believed, would be the bond that forever united their peoples. A hanyou child, multiple hanyou children, born from a miko mother, would not be something the world could ignore forever. Kagome just hoped they would all have their father's ears.

~ Fin ~


End file.
